Rare and selected Japanese Whiskys and exclusive Whisky Rarities

The Japanese are the world champions in drinking whisky and per capita consumption is much higher than that of Europeans and Americans. Whisky imported from Scotland and Ireland was first enjoyed in Japan as early as the late 18th century, although the still relatively unknown distilled alcoholic beverage from the West was rare and expensive. Back then, whisky was one of the status symbols of the Japanese upper class. Japanese whisky history and later production began indirectly in 1899 when Shinjiro Torii, the later founder of Suntory, experimented with the cultivation and production of wine. He was the founder and owner of Kotobukiya, a wine and spirits company (originally for sake) in Osaka, which was later renamed Suntory and today produces world-famous single malt and blended malt whiskies such as Yamazaki, Hakushu and Hibiki. In 1907, Akadama sweet wine is launched on the market and becomes a great success. Inspired by the results of Japanese spirit production, Torii dreams of his own original Japanese whisky - an unmistakable product of Japanese nature cultivated by master craftsmen. After achieving success with his Akadama wine, he set himself the goal of producing a whisky that would harmonise with traditional Japanese cuisine, invested the entire family fortune and had Japan s first whisky distillery built in Yamazaki in 1923. The construction of this distillery and the start of whisky production in Japan also marked the beginning of the career of the second great whisky pioneer in Japanese whisky history - Masataka Taketsuru - who was Yamazaki s master distiller for more than 10 years and learnt his craftsmanship in Scotland. Taketsuru founded his own company in Yoichi in 1934 and launched his first whisky on the Japanese market in 1940 under the name Nikka.
Japanese distilleries are now known for the highest quality standards and often utilise the latest scientific findings in combination with old craft techniques. Around half of Japanese distilleries produce malt whisky and are able to produce a wide range of different types of single malt, while the rest specialise in grain whisky. Japanese whisky producers strongly follow the Scottish model in the types they produce; in contrast to Scottish single malt, many Japanese single malts are blends of different malts from the same or several distilleries, and distillates from Scottish distilleries are also used in the so-called pure malt. Blended whiskies contain between ten and forty per cent malts, depending on the quality class - the quality levels differ with Super Premium: over 40%, Premium: 35-40%, Special: over 30%, First: over 20% and Second: over 10% single malt. As in Scotland, the term single malt stands for bottling from a single distillery. Some Japanese producers prefer to import whiskies from Scotland and blend them with their blended or pure malt whiskies instead of using their own or local products and have therefore already purchased additional distilleries in Scotland for this purpose. In Scotland, for example, the Bowmore, Auchentoshan and Glen Garioch distilleries now belong to the Suntory Group, Ben Nevis belongs to Nikka and Tomatin to the Japanese investor Takara Shuzo Co. which was the first to acquire a Scottish distillery.
Until 2001, Japanese whisky did not play a major role in Europe, but this changed abruptly when the Japanese distillery Nikka received the Best of Best award from the renowned Whisky Magazine for its 10-year-old single malt Yoichi. Since then, Japanese whisky has been among the best in the world and has received numerous other honours at the World Whiskies Awards. For example, the Suntory Yamazaki 25 Years was named Worlds Best Single Malt Whisky, while the Nikka Taketsuru 17 Years received the honour of Worlds Best Blended Malt Whisky. In 2015, the Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013 was awarded an impressive 97.5 out of 100 points in Jim Murray s Whisky Bible and was named World s Best Whisky.