Ki One "Future Super" PX Sherry Cask Korean Single Malt Whisky Special Reserve 700ml

Park Ki Woong is one of South Korea's most celebrated actors — known across Asia for his work in Korean drama and film — and he is also an artist whose work assembles vivid pastiches of Korean, Japanese, and American pop culture iconography into something genuinely and specifically his own. His piece "On the Rocks" features a painted brain surrounded by whisky imagery, carrying a simple, direct message that only the most literal-minded person could disagree with: "Life is risky, pour some whisky."

Ki One found their collaborator. The distillery's first Special Reserve edition pairs Park Ki Woong's artistic philosophy directly with two of Andrew Shand's most personally selected cask expressions, each released in a bottle colored to match the whisky's personality — yellow text for the New Oak cask, pink text for the Pedro Ximénez sherry hogshead. The PX version is the sweeter, the more specifically sherry-driven, and the more fruit-forward of the pair — big and bold with rich raisiny goodness from PX sherry aging, finishing long and spicy with a burst of red fruit.

Pedro Ximénez is the most intensely sweet and the most specifically raisin-and-fig-saturated sherry style produced anywhere in Jerez. The casks that previously held PX are among the most specifically flavor-imparting available in any category of wine or spirit cooperage — thickly coated with the dense, treacle-dark concentrated grape sweetness of a sherry whose grapes are sun-dried before fermentation, whose residual sugar content runs to extraordinary levels. Andrew Shand personally selected the PX hogshead used for this release — a decision that reflects the master distiller's deepest conviction about what this specific spirit needed, and what this specific artistic collaboration deserved to say about Ki One.

The result is precisely what the combination of Ki One's Korean climate-accelerated maturation, a personally selected PX hogshead, and a master distiller's deliberate aesthetic choice produces: sweet ripe fruits, caramel, oriental spices, and vanilla on the palate, with a creamy summer fruit finish carrying spicy warmth that is as specifically and as unmistakably Ki One as anything the distillery has released. Life is risky. Pour some whisky.

Origins & Craftsmanship

Ki One Distillery — founded in 2020 in Namyangju, South Korea by Korean-American Bryan Do and Scottish Master Distiller Andrew Shand — is South Korea's first craft single malt whisky distillery. The name Ki One (기원) means Beginning and Hope in Korean, and the Special Reserve series represents the distillery's most specifically artistic and the most personally curated tier of releases — limited editions that sit outside both the core Signature Line (Tiger, Unicorn, Eagle) and the exploratory Batch Series, instead pairing master distiller cask selection with creative collaboration.

The first edition of the Special Reserve series was created through a partnership with Park Ki Woong — Korean actor, artist, and cultural figure whose artwork "On the Rocks" provided both the visual language and the philosophical frame for the release. The collection consists of two bottles: the New Oak Cask (yellow label) and the PX Cask (pink label), each bottle featuring Park Ki Woong's painted brain imagery and his whisky-as-life-philosophy slogan. The pink label is the Pedro Ximénez expression.

The PX Cask whisky is matured in Pedro Ximénez sherry hogsheads — the most specifically sweet and the most intensely concentrated sherry cask type available, historically sourced from Jerez de la Frontera in southern Spain, where Pedro Ximénez grapes are harvested and sun-dried before fermentation to concentrate their natural sugars into the dark, treacle-thick, fig-and-raisin-saturated sweet sherry that saturates the inside of the hogshead. The specific PX hogshead used for this release was personally selected by Andrew Shand — a hands-on curatorial decision that distinguishes this expression from standard batch releases. The base spirit is 100% unpeated malted barley, double-distilled in Forsyths copper pot stills, fermented for a minimum of five days in stainless steel tanks, and matured under the extreme seasonal cycling of Namyangju's climate — hot, humid summers and genuinely icy winters — at the 2.5x accelerated maturation rate that Korea's four-season extremity delivers over Scotland's temperate conditions. Bottled without coloring or chill filtration. Non-age statement.

Critics Reviews

No published numerical critic scores are available for Future Super PX Cask at this time.

Ki One Distillery official tasting notes (Future Super PX Cask):
"The whisky is big and bold with plenty of rich raisiny goodness imparted from its sherry cask aging. It finishes long and spicy with a burst of red fruit that will make you believe in the specialness that its name implies."

Ki One sibling expression awards context:
Gold Medal — 2025 SFWSC (Tiger Edition) · Worldwide Whisky Trophy 2025 IWSC (Unicorn Edition — first Korean whisky) · Double Gold — 2024 SFWSC (Batch 3 Oloroso Sherry Cask) · Best Korean Single Malt — 2024 World Whiskies Awards (Batch 3)

Tasting Profile

Nose
Sweet ripe fruits lead the nose with immediate and specifically PX-sherry-derived generosity — the Pedro Ximénez hogshead's most directly apparent aromatic contribution, the concentrated dried fruit sweetness of sun-dried Jerez grapes saturating the spirit during maturation and translating directly to the glass. Raisin and fig add the most classically PX secondary aromatic notes, warm and dense without being heavy. The Ki One base spirit's characteristic fruitiness amplifies the sherry's sweetness rather than fighting it — a combination that the Korean climate's summer heat has specifically intensified across the maturation period. A warm, welcoming, and immediately inviting nose of pure fruit-driven abundance.

Palate
Big and bold with rich raisiny goodness — the distillery's own most accurate characterization. Caramel carries the mid-palate's sweetest quality alongside vanilla from the spirit's underlying American oak contact and the sherry's own sugar contribution. Oriental spices add the most specifically and the most memorably Ki One palate dimension — the warm, Korean-spiced quality that the peninsula's icy winters extract from the wood and that distinguishes this whisky's palate from any European or American sherry-cask expression of similar style. The raisin richness builds through the back half without becoming cloying.

Finish
Creamy summer fruit mix with spicy warmth — long and specifically and unmistakably Korean in character. The burst of red fruit that the distillery identifies carries through a close of genuine warmth and spiced persistence, the PX sherry's contribution and Ki One's signature Korean spice in the most specifically satisfying combination available in the Special Reserve range.

Quick Overview

Food Pairings

• Dark chocolate and chocolate desserts — the PX raisin richness finding its most natural mirror
• Dried fruit and nut boards
• Blue cheese — the PX sweetness cutting through the cheese's pungency
• Korean red bean desserts (patbingsu, bunggeoppang) — the most specifically and the most culturally aligned pairing