What is a Mizunara?

Mizunara is a wooden barrel made of water.

Yóu is a kind of oak, a branch of Quercus mongolica, belonging to temperate deciduous broad-leaved forest. Its height can grow to 35 meters, and the edge of green leaves is jagged. It blooms in May-June and ripens in autumn. This kind of oak is rich in vanillin (phenolic substance) and high in water content, so it is called water chestnut.

Water tends to be cool, and has strong viability, which can withstand the cold weather of minus 60 degrees and thrive. However, its growth rate is very slow. It takes 170 years or more for a water chestnut tree to grow into usable wood. Water chestnut mainly grows in Hokkaido, Kuril Islands and Sakhalin Island in Japan. In addition, it can be seen in northeast China, Mongolia and Russia.

Why do you make aged whiskey in oak barrels with water?

In fact, at first, I would think that I was really forced to use water chestnut, which would be recalled to the second world war. At that time, Japan, as the main warring state, started wars everywhere, so it was blocked by other countries and could not import oak barrels from the United States and Europe. So Japan had to look for suitable wood in China, and finally found the water chestnut in Hokkaido.

Later, as the aging time lengthened, it was found that when the water barrel was aged for more than 20 years, it would develop a fragrance similar to agarwood, sandalwood and Galo incense, which was called "oriental Zen flavor". As a result, the water bucket was gradually accepted by more people and became popular.

What are the characteristics of water barrels?

(1) Precious things are rare-there are few raw materials in water.

(2) It is difficult to make barrels.

(3) Unique flavor, irreplaceable

(4) RMB players from all walks of life pursue it.

Due to the popularity of the spirits industry, in recent years, the water barrel has become famous all over the world, and it is no longer exclusive to Japan. Some non-Japanese wineries have started to use this rare oak to age whiskey. Usually, a bourbon barrel is generally $120, a Shirley barrel is about $700, but a water barrel is as high as $5,000, and there is often a price without a market, so the price of water barrel whisky is generally much higher than that of other oak barrel whiskies.

What flavor does the water barrel bring?

Many connoisseurs believe that water casks can bring ancient oriental flavors such as sandalwood and agarwood to whiskey. At the same time, Suntory's research found that water casks actually give coconut flavor to liquor. After all, the tasting of wine is influenced by subjective factors, and the flavor in it needs to be explored by each person. It is said that the smell of forest, green moss and earth contained in the whisky is also rich. However, if other barreled whiskies with similar styles are used together, it may be difficult to identify the difference-to some extent, it is more like a concept.