Japanese whisky continues its march into increasingly creative territory, and the Hatozaki 12 Year Old Umeshu Finish is a fine example of a category that refuses to stand still. For those unfamiliar, umeshu is a traditional Japanese plum liqueur — sweet, tart, deeply aromatic — and finishing a blended malt in those casks is exactly the kind of lateral thinking that makes Japanese whisky so compelling right now. At £80.75 and bottled at 46% without chill filtration concerns at that strength, this sits in a competitive but justifiable price bracket for a 12-year-old Japanese blend with a genuine point of difference.
Hatozaki as a brand operates under the Kaikyo Distillery umbrella in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture — a region with a quieter reputation than the headline-grabbing names but one that's been producing whisky since the 1980s. The 12-year age statement alone puts this ahead of many Japanese releases currently flooding the market with NAS expressions at similar or higher price points. You're paying for time in wood here, and then getting an additional layer of complexity from the umeshu cask finish. That's not nothing.
What to Expect
I'll be straightforward: an umeshu finish on a blended malt is not something you encounter every day. The category suggests you should expect the malt backbone of a well-aged Japanese blend — typically clean, precise, with a certain restraint that distinguishes Japanese production from its Scottish cousins — layered with the sweet-tart fruit influence of plum liqueur casks. At 46%, there should be enough body and delivery to carry those finishing notes without them becoming a gimmick. This is a whisky that clearly wants to be taken seriously while doing something genuinely unusual, and I respect that balance.
The blended malt designation means no grain whisky here — this is all malt, drawn from multiple distilleries or production runs and married together. For a Japanese blended malt at 12 years, the expectation is a degree of sophistication that younger or grain-inclusive blends can't always achieve. The umeshu finish should add a distinctive fruity sweetness and perhaps a gentle acidity that lifts the whole experience.
The Verdict
At 8 out of 10, the Hatozaki 12 Year Old Umeshu Finish earns its marks on ambition, age statement transparency, and sheer originality. In a market saturated with NAS Japanese whiskies riding the wave of demand at inflated prices, here's a bottle that gives you verifiable age, a bottling strength that suggests confidence in the liquid, and a finishing technique that isn't just marketing theatre. Is £80.75 steep? For the general whisky market, yes. For a 12-year-old Japanese blended malt with a genuine creative twist, it's actually rather fair. I'd take this over several better-known Japanese bottles at the same price point that offer less character and no age statement. This is a whisky for the curious — and it rewards that curiosity.
Best Served
Pour this neat in a Glencairn at room temperature and give it a good ten minutes to open up. If you want to experiment, try it in a Japanese-style highball with quality soda water and a thin slice of fresh plum — it leans into the umeshu character beautifully. On a warm evening, that highball might just be one of the best serves you'll have all summer. Avoid ice if you can; at 46%, the flavours need room to breathe, not to be muted.
