Fukano 10 Years Review

It’s been a minute since I did a Japanese whisky review, so I figured it was time to do a quick circle back with a quintessentially Japanese product: Fukano 10 Years. Made from a mix of new and used casks, this is a stellar example of the beauty of the spirit at work here.

I know there are some folks out there who will say this isn’t Japanese whisky, but to that I say “it’s far more of a Japanese product than all of the imported Scotch and Canadian whisky being imported, “naturalized” and labeled as Japanese whisky on the market”. Fukano and Ohishi are both made 100% in Japan with Japanese rice by Japanese companies and families that have been at it for decades.

It hits the definition of whisky as it’s distilled from a fermented mash of grain – the second most consumed grain on the globe, behind corn, to be exact – and aged in an oak container. The only reason it can’t be called whisky in Japan, but can everywhere else, is due to legislation that was passed to keep barrel-aged shochu from competing with malt whisky. Talk about a missed opportunity.

Instead of embracing a potentially unique and localized form of whisky, a Western-style spirit was instead embraced and the doors opened to allow “naturalized” whisky products from around the world to be called Japanese whisky. Think of what an expanded and diverse world of flavor, process, and innovation would exist if instead, both were embraced and cultivated…

Anyways, time to drink.

Fukano 10 Years Review: Details and Tasting Notes

In Fukano’s Words:

“The Fukano Distillery has been in operation since 1823 and is located in the city of Hitoyoshi, Kumamoto, Japan. All Fukano whiskies are limited from just a few hundred to a few thousand bottles.”

Fukano 10 Years Front Label

Details (price, mash bill, cask type, ABV, etc.)

Region: Japan

Distiller: Fukano
Mash Bill: 100% Rice
Cask: Virgin Oak and refill shochu
Age: 10 Years
ABV: 40.2%

Cask Strength | Non-Chill Filtered | Natural Color

Price: $80

Tasting Notes

EYE
Amber honey

NOSE
Jammy fruit, baking spice, brown sugar, soda crackers, rice spirit sweetness and caramel.

PALATE
Rice sweetness, caramel, orange peels, spice, dried orchard fruit, vanilla and a touch of granola.

FINISH
Medium -> Soft fade of dark sweets, rice spirit and fruit.

BALANCE, BODY & FEEL
Good sense of balance, medium body and a soft round feel.

A soft and multi-faceted sweet (fruit, dark and rice) that retains a bit of dryness and edge which keep it interesting, fun and far from cloying.

Fukano 10 Years Review: Overall and Score

Aroma is warm and fruity with pockets of dark sweets and comes across more like a nice Scotch than a Japanese Rice Whisky; Palate is the opposite with shochu sweetness and showing prominently and layered with fruity and darkly sweet notes; Finish is a soft fade of those dark, rice and fruit sweet notes. This is enjoyable from start to finish.

There is a super light metallic hint that threads through all the senses and gives the whisky a bit of an edge, but on the whole this is a delicate and beautiful whisky that showcases the key notes and profile of this distillery. I love the fruity (ripe and dry) notes that move and shift through the senses, making this a whisky I find something new in almost every time I open it. The Fukano 10 Years a delicate adventure for the senses.

SCORE: 4/5

Fukano 10 Years Logo