Mars Malt Le Papillon Gifucho
The “Mars Malt Le Papillon” series uses Japanese butterflies as a motif to represent the natural environment related to whisky maturation.
The seventh product in the series is themed on the “Gifu Butterfly,” a species endemic to Japan with black and yellowish-white vertical stripes and wings lined with red, blue, and orange spots on the outer hind wings, and was carefully selected from a cask of lightly peated, original sake aged in American white oak casks to evoke the “goddess of spring” as well. This single cask whiskey is a gem of a single cask whiskey, bottled at natural cask strength and non-chill filtered, with a focus on the flavor from the cask, from the malt whiskey distilled at the Mars Shinshu distillery in 2013.
“On a still chilly morning in May 2015, as I walked along a snowy mountain road in Shirakawa Village, Ono-gun, Gifu Prefecture, a dark blue carpet of katakuris appeared in the open space. I looked up at the sky again and again, praying for the weather to improve. After a long wait, the sun finally shone through a gap in the clouds, and I noticed that a gibbous butterfly had come to the village to nectar. The red color of its hind wings stood out. It is so showy, but when it perches on the ground, the camouflage pattern makes it hard to spot it. She flitted from flower to flower, sucking nectar impatiently. Eventually, she was satisfied and disappeared into the woods. The gryphon, which appears only when cherry blossoms are in bloom, is called the “goddess of spring. This single malt whiskey was made by selecting a cask of malt distilled at the Shinshu Distillery in 2013 that evokes the “Goddess of Spring”.
The photo and butterfly description on the label are by Kyoji Osozawa.