Chiyomusubi Craft Gin Impact (700 ml)

Chiyomusubi has brewed sake in Sakaiminato City since 1865, drawing water by hand from a natural spring at the foot of the Chugoku Mountains in Shimane Prefecture — a three-hour round trip made daily during the brewing season. That same fermentation discipline underpins IMPACT gin: the base spirit is rice-shochu, distilled in-house by a toji who oversees both the brewery's fermented and distilled categories, making this one of the few gins where sake-house fermentation expertise is structurally embedded in the distillate itself. Layered over that base are 13 botanicals: juniper, coriander, angelica root, yuzu, lemon, hassaku orange, bitter orange, ginger, clove, cinnamon, blueberry — and critically, Kuromoji (Lindera umbellata), a Japanese spicebush wood native to the region that contributes a camphoraceous, forest-floor aromatic found in virtually no Western gin. Bottled at 47% ABV without dilution to standard strength, the elevated proof preserves the volatile top notes of the citrus quartet while keeping the Kuromoji resin intact. The defining transgression here is categorical: IMPACT is not a sake-flavoured novelty but a structurally dry gin whose spice architecture is built from a distilled rice foundation rather than a neutral grain base — depth that no botanical addition alone could replicate. Drink now or hold; no vintage variation applies.