Rabbit Hole Founder's Collection: Mizunara Cask Strength

Rabbit Hole Founder’s Collection Mizunara Cask Strength feels like Kentucky meeting Kyoto in one very serious glass. This rare release blends 15-year-old Kentucky straight bourbons, then finishes them for an extra year in new Japanese Mizunara oak. It’s bottled at cask strength, 114.2 proof, with no chill filtration, so every layer of oak, fruit, and spice stays intact.

The nose opens lush and aromatic, overflowing with banana, apple, pear, cherry, and a sharp twist of black pepper and mint. Sweet oak, baking spice, and a faint sandalwood note drift in behind, giving the aroma a polished yet slightly exotic edge.

On the palate, the whiskey arrives silky and concentrated, carrying caramel, toasted oak, nutmeg, black pepper, and tobacco leaf atop dark fruit. Mizunara brings incense-like wood, black tea, and subtle citrus oil, threading through the sweetness without ever turning the oak bitter. Heat builds gradually rather than spiking, letting you appreciate the shifting layers of spice, fruit, and wood as the glass sits and slowly opens.

The finish glows long and buttery, carrying cinnamon, nutmeg, dark chocolate, and toasted oak over a lingering haze of mint and Mizunara incense. Richness lingers on the tongue while gentle tannin tightens the edges, keeping everything precise rather than syrupy.