Kyoto, Japan. While total whisky, both imported and local, accounts for just 1.16% of Japan’s huge drinks market – way below sake and beer, there is still so much positive buzz now both domestically and internationally for Japan’s own whisky brands. I recently visited the Yamazaki Distillery located in Kyoto, Japan’s very first commercial distillery that started operations in 1923. The historic distillery started the legacy of Japanese premium whisky. The Yamazaki Distillery belongs to the huge Suntory Group. Just last year, 2014, Suntory bought Beam Inc. of Illinois, USA (owners of Jim Beam, Suaza, Courvoisier, Canadian Club, etc..) to become the world’s third largest premium spirits company.
Japanese Whisky
(Inset) The most influential whisky book
Japanese whisky is patterned after the scotch – a malt whisky or grain whisky made in Scotland, twice distilled and using pot stills… thus missing the `e’ in the spelling as against the Irish whiskey and American whiskey (bourbon). While Scotch whisky has over three centuries of head start against the Japanese, the recognition of Japanese whiskies especially the single malt whiskies have caught the attention of the world and is no longer just a novelty. The most `in’ drink among the affluent and sophisticated tipplers as of late has been the single malt whiskies, and the Japanese whiskies are riding high on this bandwagon.
Beating the Scottish Whisky
The Japanese whiskies were supposed to be just for domestic consumption, being initially made to copy the Scottish style of whisky from its onset. But just pseudo-like the momentous wine game-changing `Judgment of Paris 1976 wine blind tasting showdown’, where Californian wines beat their more illustrious French counterparts, Japanese whiskies have been extremely successful against their Scottish counterparts at the industry authority Whisky Magazine blind tasting challenges. In these whisky blind tastings, Japanese aged single malts are pitted against their Scottish counterparts, and the Yamazakis and the Yoichis (from the other huge Japanese distillery Nikka) often come out on top. And the biggest `coup’ to-date just came out late last year, when whisky demigod, Englishman Jim Murray, the enormously influential Robert Parker-esque voice of whisky, declared the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 as the best whisky in the world, receiving an almost impeccable score of 97.5 out of 100 in his top selling 2015 World Whisky Bible.
Shinjiro Torii’s Profound Influence
Shinjiro Torii was owner of Kotobukiya (later changed to present name Suntory when company diversified), a pharmaceutical wholesaler when he had the vision of making the perfect Japanese whisky, even when during the early 20th century, the Japanese market was not ready for a Japanese whisky. Shinjiro Torri took his first fearless move when he invested in his protege, Masataka Taketsuru, and sent him to Scotland after the end of the World War I to learn the intricacies of Scottish whisky making. After almost three years in Scotland and working and learning from Scottish distilleries, Masataka Taketsuru returned back to Japan with his new found knowledge and together with Shinjiro Torii, build Japan’s first distillery in Yamazaki, located at the foot of Mount Tennozan in southwestern Kyoto. Masataka Taketsuru would later leave Yamazaki Distillery in 1934 to form his own distillery, Dainipponkaju, which would later change to its present name Nikka in Yoichi in Hokkaido. Masataka Taketsuru’s exploits as a whisky genius married to a Scottish woman is now being romanticized in NHK’s top rated 15-minute morning drama series called `Massan’ (though the character was given a fictional name, Masaharu Kameyama). Yamazaki Distillery and Nikka Distillery remain the two best-known Japanese distilleries.
Renewed Vigor in the Domestic Front
The unprecedented popularity of the NHK drama series `Massan’, which had a huge viewership of 20% according to the Japan Times is one of the reasons for the sudden surge of domestic consumption of Japanese whiskies. The locals especially the younger generation are reviving the highball drink – a mix of whisky and soda. Also, the timing could not have been better after the Jim Murray announcement of a Yamazaki single malt whisky being adjudged the world’s best whisky in the 2015 World Whisky Bible. Both Suntory Group (parent company of Yamazaki) and Asahi Group (parent company of Nikka) announced increased sales of over double volumes since the `Massan’ TV series started in September 2014. In fact according to the Japan Times, Yamazaki will even curtail their exports to be able to cope up with local demand. The `Massan’ drama series will conclude on March 28, 2015.
Tasting Notes
Yamazaki Single Malt 25 Years
In the Yamazaki Distillery tasting room, 15ml. shot samples of all the various whiskies, including Scotch whiskies are available for tasting, and the price varies from whisky to whisky. I had samplers of whiskies that cost me from ¥200.00 to ¥2,400.00/shot.
• Yamazaki Single Malt Whisky Distillery Selection (exclusive to distillery visitors) – `peach, apple, sweet and spicy, cinnamon notes, long juniper berry essence in the taste’
• Yamazaki Single Cask 1995
(Cask # 5P0008) – aged in American cask; `cinnamon bark, vanilla, green apple, tarty, long white pepper, coffee bean and toffee-like finish’
• Yamazaki Single Cask 1986
(Cask # 6B0168) – aged in Sherry cask; `super smoky, sweet cedar, bitter-sweet on the palate, long and viscous, spicy, peppery finish’
• Yamazaki Single Malt 25 Years – aged in Sherry cask; `peach schnapps, perfumed, honeyed, cedary, chrysanthemum, thick, supple, cigar-box like long finish’
I am still very much a novice whisky drinker but I am starting to appreciate the level of complexity especially with regards to the single malts and the aging components.I will still be an oenophile, but I no longer dread being offered whiskies if I do not like the wine selection… but please give me a single malt instead of a blended whisky.