Kanosuke 5 Year Old Single Cask #20319 Whisky & Spirits Festival 2026 in Yokohama

Kanosuke 5 Year Old Single Cask #20319 Whisky & Spirits Festival 2026 in Yokohama Bottling Note

The Kanosuke 5 Year Old Single Cask #20319 is a single malt Japanese whisky produced at the Kanosuke Distillery in Hioki City, Kagoshima Prefecture. Bottled exclusively for the Whisky & Spirits Festival 2026 in Yokohama, this event‑only release was distilled in 2020 and bottled in 2026 after five years of maturation.

Drawn from cask #20319, the whisky was matured in a shochu cask and bottled at its natural cask strength of 62% ABV without dilution. Only 252 bottles were produced from this single cask. As a single cask bottling, it presents the character of one individual barrel rather than the broader house style typically expressed through multi‑cask vatting.

Operated by Komasa Jyozo, a long‑established shochu producer in Kagoshima, Kanosuke Distillery is known for incorporating shochu casks into its whisky maturation programme. This connection to the company’s shochu‑making heritage is one of the defining characteristics of the Kanosuke brand and distinguishes it from many other Japanese whisky producers.

A distinctive feature of this release is its festival‑exclusive label design, which incorporates Poem No.10 by Semimaru from the classical Ogura Hyakunin Isshu anthology. The same verse appears on the bottle label:

これやこの
行くも帰るも
別れては
知るも知らぬも
逢坂の関

This literary motif sets the bottling apart from Kanosuke’s standard official releases and reflects the commemorative nature of the festival edition. An original presentation box is also included.

Combining five years of maturation, shochu‑cask ageing, single‑cask provenance, and cask‑strength bottling, Kanosuke 5 Year Old Single Cask #20319 represents a distinctive event‑exclusive release created for the Whisky & Spirits Festival 2026 in Yokohama. Limited to just 252 bottles, it occupies a unique place within Kanosuke’s single cask releases.