Karuizawa 1984 Single Cask #2961 – Whisky Club Partners Reserve Dinner | Sherry Cask | 57.7% ABV | 12 Bottles | 70cl

Karuizawa needs no introduction to anyone serious about Japanese whisky. The small mountain distillery in Nagano prefecture, operating from 1955 until its closure in 2000, produced a rich, heavily sherried single malt using coal-fired stills and exclusively sherry cask maturation — a style frequently described as "Macallan on steroids." Since closure, the cult around Karuizawa has grown to extraordinary proportions, with bottles regularly achieving record prices at auction and the remaining global supply shrinking with every passing year.

Cask #2961 was a single sherry cask distilled in 1984 and bottled in 2012 at 27 years old and 57.7% ABV, yielding 350 bottles in its standard Japan release. The Whisky Club Partners Reserve Dinner version is a special sub-allocation from that same cask — just 12 bottles, presented exclusively for a private dinner event. The liquid inside is identical: 57.7% ABV, cask #2961, 1984 vintage. But the outturn is one of the smallest of any legitimate Karuizawa single cask release ever produced.

Key Details
- Distillery: Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan — closed 2000
- Cask: Single sherry cask — Cask #2961
- Vintage: Distilled 1984
- Age: 27 Years Old
- Bottled: 2012
- Release: Whisky Club Partners Reserve Dinner — special sub-allocation
- Style: Japanese Single Malt Whisky
- Bottling strength: 57.7% ABV — Cask Strength
- Bottle size: 70cl
- Outturn: 12 bottles (from the total cask outturn of 350 bottles)
- Condition: Perfect, with original packaging

Tasting Notes
Nose: Highly oriental and complex — glue notes and oil open into polished cedar oak, raspberry jam, strawberries, sour plums, raisins, and hints of fragrant lemon skin. A signature Karuizawa profile: exotic, resinous, and unlike anything produced anywhere else.
Palate: Rich, oily, and powerfully expressive at cask strength — concentrated sherry fruit, dark dried fruits, and the distinctive cedar and tobacco notes that define Karuizawa's character. Intense and layered throughout.
Finish: Long, warming, and complex — polished oak, dried fruit, and spice fading across a dignified and deeply Japanese exit. Score: 91/100 (WhiskyNotes).

Why This Bottle Is Worth Bidding On
- Karuizawa is closed, demolished, and cannot produce another drop. The global supply of cask-strength sherry cask releases from 1984 vintage is finite and shrinking at every auction — bottles of this pedigree do not appear regularly.
- The Whisky Club Partners Reserve Dinner version with just 12 bottles is among the rarest sub-allocations from any Karuizawa cask ever documented — this is the dinner presentation, not the standard release, and finding one outside of a private collection is genuinely exceptional.
- Karuizawa 1984 from a sherry cask at cask strength is one of the most collectable and consistently appreciated categories in Japanese whisky. The dinner presentation provenance makes this specific bottle a one-of-a-kind piece.