In January 2025 I visited Filliers distillery in Belgium. I was guided by their young chairman Benoit Filliers, and met master distiller Pedro Saez Del Burgo. One of the things that I got to try was a Mizunara cask, straight from the barrel. They only had two casks in the warehouse at that point, but I was rather impressed and encouraged them it was ready to bottle. Now the resulting whisky is in my hands.
Mizunara was maybe not a deliberate choice. This Japanese wood type is notoriously prone to leakage. It was simply one of the experimental cask types they acquired at some point to widen their inventory of casks. The casks were sitting in a corner of the warehouse right above two orange wine casks.
The whisky itself is their malted barley spirit, distilled in the copper pot stills from Forsyths which they installed in 2018. Most of the other Filliers whiskies on the market still rely on their column still production, but in my opinion the new spirit is higher quality.
Filliers Mizunara Cask Finish 7 yo 2019 (45,1%, OB ‘Master Distiller Selection’ 2026, 393 btl.)
Nose: that went fast – it displays more fresh wood shavings than I remembered. Luckily it adds to the oriental character. Sandalwood and spearmint, along with lemon peelings and hints of tangerine. There’s a generous layer of orange honey, along with ripe apricot and hints of white chocolate with coconut filling. Then some ginger biscuits, vanilla and sweet grassy touches as well.
Mouth: fresher than you’d expect from the nose – a nice interplay of creaminess and brightness. Raw malty notes, more lemon peels, juniper and mint leaves, as well as drops of clove oil. Then the typical resinous notes of Mizunara come out, along with mild white pepper, fresh herbs and dried coconut flakes. Some raisin sweetness returns in the end.
Finish: medium, on minty wood shavings, ginger, vanilla and resin.
For such a difficult cask type, this is a successful experiment. Still not the best advocate for the new spirit though, since the exotic wood is quite loud here. Looking forward to future releases. Available from the distillery shop for around € 150, and several retailers.