(Photo: Bardstown Bourbon Company)
Bardstown Bourbon Company announced on Tuesday that it will release its second Distillery Reserve expression — Hokkaido Japanese Mizunara Oak Barrel Finish — this Friday, continuing its small-batch series of experimental whiskeys. The whiskey was finished for 28 months in six rare Japanese oak barrels and will only be available in 375-milliliter bottles at Bardstown’s gift shop and Louisville tasting room.
The release follows Cathedral French Oak, which was featured on “60 Minutes.” Like its predecessor, the Hokkaido Mizunara Oak bottling is rare and complex.
We were lucky enough to get an early taste and published a full review of Bardstown Hokkaido Mizunara Oak — which you can check out here — and it impressed us with its layers of character and decadent flavor profile.
The blend features a mix of 9- to 18-year-old aged whiskeys that were transferred into 66-gallon barrels made from Mizunara oak harvested in Hokkaido, Japan. These trees grow slowly in volcanic soil, making them difficult to source and cooper, and prized for their impact on flavor. Here’s how the full blend breaks down:
47%: 15-year-old Kentucky bourbon distilled from a mashbill of 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley
33%: 14-year-old Kentucky bourbon made from 78% corn, 10% rye and 12% malted barley
15%: 9-year-old Indiana rye whiskey distilled from 51% rye, 45% corn and 4% malted barley
5%: 18-year-old Tennessee bourbon with a mashbill of 84% corn, 8% rye and 8% malted barley
Put together? This sweet, oaky sipper is expertly blended and is one of the best whiskeys of 2025 so far.
Bardstown Bourbon Co. began the finishing process in its Warehouse H in a custom room built to house oversized barrels. According to the brand, the room’s wide temperature swings led to rapid wood extraction and a spike in proof. Afterward, the barrels were moved to Warehouse E to rest at the center of the rickhouse’s ground floor, purportedly allowing the flavors to integrate more gradually.
“Mizunara oak is unlike anything else in the world,” said Dan Callaway, master blender at Lofted Spirits, Bardstown Bourbon Co.’s parent company. “The wood’s unpredictable nature demands skill and reverence, but the payoff is extraordinary. This release is a tribute to craftsmanship — Japanese and American — meeting at the highest level.”
The resulting whiskey is bottled at 109.3 proof and priced at $99.99 per 375-milliliter bottle.
The Hokkaido release is part of Bardstown Bourbon’s Distillery Reserve series, which features small-format, exclusive offerings that explore finishing, aging and blending techniques not used in its core lineup.
Lofted Spirits was founded in 2016 by Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame inductee Peter Loftin. It owns Bardstown Bourbon Co. as well as Green River, and has contract distilled for a large quantity of notable brands, including Coors’ Blue Run Spirits, Chicken Cock Whiskey, Bob Dylan’s Heaven’s Door, Horse Soldier, O.H. Ingram, Dierks Bentley’s ROW 94, Field of Dreams and 15 STARS Fine Aged Bourbon.
AloJapan.com