A New Permanent Japanese Single Malt from Fuji Whisky
The new whisky joins single grain and blended malt offerings in Fuji’s core lineup
October 2, 2025 –––––– Julia Higgins
When it debuted in the U.S. in 2021, Japan’s Fuji brought two whiskies stateside: a single grain and a single blend. In the four years that followed, various other, often rarer whiskies have emerged from the Gotemba-based distillery—which sits at the southeastern foothills of Mount Fuji—including a single malt celebrating its 50th anniversary, a 30 year old single grain, and a bottling that blended Fuji malt and grain whiskies aged 7 to 16 years old. That blend took the 19th spot on our Top 20 list in 2024 (and ultimately replaced a previously released blend in the Fuji lineup). Single grain and blended whiskies have been the sole widely available Fuji releases in the U.S.; that changes now, however, with the addition of a core single malt.
Made from 100% Japanese malt, Fuji single malt is aged in a combination of American oak barrels and French oak red wine barrels. Like all Fuji malts, this was distilled on copper pot stills, in the style of scotch single malts. Fuji’s malts are typically delicate and fruit-forward, and this new whisky adheres to that playbook, with master blender Jota Tanaka calling out notes of white peach, apple, pineapple, apricot, and citrus peel. The new single malt is proofed to 46% ABV, priced at $100, and available across the U.S.
While Fuji has released single malts in the past, its malt production has played more of a supporting role in the face of blends and grain whiskies, and this is by design—in addition to its malt, the distillery produces three styles of grain whisky, ranging from a scotch-style grain whisky made using continuous distillation to a bourbon-style grain whisky made using a beer column and doubler and a Canadian-style grain whisky distilled with a batch distillation method in kettle and column stills.
Fuji will be pouring this new single malt, along with its single grain, single blend, and 50th anniversary single malt at WhiskyFest New York on November 14th—a rare opportunity to sample all the expressions side by side. Tickets are available here.
