Scarlet Cask Marriage Bitter Liqeur Batch 9 700ml

Scarlet Cask Marriage Bitter Liqeur Batch 9 700ml

Every year, Motonaga selects a small number of ex-Japanese whisky casks, fills them with his finished Scarlet aperitivo, and lets time do the rest. Batch 9 was aged in four hand-selected ex-bourbon barrels — three that previously held whisky from the legendary Chichibu Distillery in Saitama, and one that held Hioki Grain Whisky distilled by Kanosuke Distillery in Kagoshima. The marriage of these four barrels introduces layers of oak depth, dried fruit richness, and grain sweetness that transform Scarlet's already complex botanical character into something genuinely extraordinary.

Every bottle in this batch like every bottle Iseya produces — was made and filled entirely by hand.

Motonaga grows many of his ingredients himself, without pesticides, on a farm neighboring the distillery. The Cask Marriage base is built on 25 estate-grown and locally sourced botanicals, macerated in neutral sugarcane spirit, including lemon balm, golden berry sprouts, sage, angelica root, wormwood, fennel, licorice, cinnamon bark, jasmine flowers, blood orange peel, yuzu, and Japanese pampas grass — among others undisclosed. Naturally colored with cochineal dye in the tradition of classic Italian red bitters.

Tasting Notes

• Nose: Cherry cola, vanilla bean, sandalwood, whisky oak, and a warm wave of cinnamon and dried citrus peel
• Palate: Rich and layered — vanilla, burnt caramel, dried apricot, dark chocolate, tobacco leaf, rosemary, and clove, all woven through with herbal complexity
• Finish: Long and gently drying — toasted cinnamon, licorice, prickly ash, and a lingering bittersweet botanical warmth