Karuizawa 30 Year Old 1983 — First Geisha | Single Bourbon Cask #8606 | Bottled 2013 | 55.8% ABV | 350 Bottles | 70cl

The First Geisha is the inaugural label of the Karuizawa Geisha series — the release that introduced the world to the concept of Karuizawa single casks presented with classical Japanese woodblock print artwork. Cask #8606, distilled in 1983 and bottled in 2013 at 30 years old, is a single bourbon cask expression at natural cask strength of 55.8% ABV. Just 350 bottles were produced from this single cask. The "First" designation makes this a founding piece of the most celebrated and reproduced whisky label in Japanese whisky history.

Karuizawa's bourbon cask releases carry a distinct character from their sherry cask counterparts: lighter, more fruit-forward and more accessible, yet with the same underlying mountainous Nagano character — concentrated, clean and utterly unlike any Scotch or Irish equivalent. At 30 years in a single bourbon barrel, this is the most refined and complex expression of that style the First Geisha series offers.

Key Details

• Distillery: Karuizawa, Nagano, Japan — closed 2000, demolished 2011
• Expression: 30 Year Old — First Geisha Series
• Vintage: Distilled 1983
• Age: 30 Years Old
• Bottled: 2013
• Style: Japanese Single Malt Whisky
• Cask: Single bourbon cask — Cask #8606
• Bottling strength: 55.8% ABV — Cask Strength
• Bottle size: 70cl
• Outturn: 350 bottles
• Colouring / filtration: Natural colour, Non-Chill-Filtered
• Condition: Perfect, with original packaging

Tasting Notes

Nose: The bourbon cask character shines — vanilla, toasted caramel and ripe orchard fruit lead, with the warmth and concentration that thirty years in a single American oak barrel delivers. Tropical fruit notes — pineapple, dried mango — emerge alongside a subtle cedarwood earthiness that is distinctly Japanese and distinctly Karuizawa.

Palate: Full-bodied, oily and expressive at cask strength. The fruit leads — apricot, dried pear and concentrated stone fruit — with warm spice, toffee and a growing oakiness from the long maturation in bourbon wood. A refined and beautifully integrated dram that shows what this distillery could achieve with different wood.

Finish: Long and satisfying — the bourbon cask warmth and fruit sweetness fading slowly alongside a lingering light smoke and cedar quality.

Why This Bottle Is Worth Bidding On

• The inaugural label of the Karuizawa Geisha series: historically, this label launched one of the most iconic and valuable visual identities in Japanese whisky, and a bottle carrying the "First" label is a founding piece of that story
• 350 bottles from a single 30-year-old bourbon cask of a permanently closed distillery is an extraordinary rarity — bourbon cask Karuizawa at this age and outturn is far harder to find than the sherry expressions that dominate the secondary market
• Karuizawa First Geisha bottles continue to command premium prices at specialist auction globally; collectors actively seek the inaugural Geisha label as the origin point of the series.