Bar Besuto x Chichibu Whisky - Rare Whisky Master Class

Hosted by Takeshi Kageyama, owner-bartender Bar Kage (Ginza, Japan)
Bar Besuto, 3 Underwood St, Circular Quay
$250 per person
8 Seats only

“Bar Kage in Ginza offers an amazing array of whisky and owner Takeshi Kageyama’s knowledge is second to none. That’s my number one recommendation for anyone going to Tokyo who enjoys whisky.” - Joel Best, as told to ESCAPE

Takeshi Kageyama, the owner of one of Joel Best from Besuto’s absolute favourite bars, Bar Kage in Ginza, Tokyo, is visiting Sydney (a very rare visit!) to guide whisky lovers through some rare bottles of Chichibu whisky (with some of them, one of only 186 bottles from the barrel). 

As part of this masterclass, you will have the chance to sip on:

Chichibu tasting:

10ml x Chichibu The First

10ml x Chichibu IPA Cask Finish

10ml x Chichibu Claude Whisky Single Cask 2021

10ml x Chichibu Mitsukoshi Single Cask 2014

10ml x Chichibu surprise limited cask sample

10ml x Chichibu surprise limited cask sample

About Chichibu Distillery

Chichibu is the flagship whisky distilled at the Chichibu Distillery, located in the namesake town of Chichibu, in the Saitama prefecture. This tiny distillery, led by founder Ichiro Akuto (Ichiro is not only an icon of Japanese whisky, he is singlehandedly leading the charge of a renaissance of Japanese craft whisky (also known as Ji-Whisky, meaning local whisky), still only employs around 10 people since it opened in 2018, makes the most sought after Japanese whisky in the world. It occupies a much smaller premise than other Japanese whisky makers such as Suntory, Nikka or even Mars, which are well regarded giants in the Japanese whisky landscape. Unlike these giants, Chichibu’s expressions are released in very small batches. As scarcity feeds into rarity, the fact that Chichibu’s whiskies have been so difficult to get has certainly added to its allure. Chichibu has racked up accolades the world over. Critics just simply cannot deny how complex yet distinctive Chichibu’s whiskies are, so much so that they’ve begrudgingly given the little craft distillery a free pass on the fact that most of its whiskies are still very young (at least in whisky years), for it to occupy the same top shelf as 50 year old Macallans and 25 year old Mizunara-aged Yamazakis.