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Japanese Whisky: The Comprehensive Collector’s Guide
A deep dive into everything you should know about Japanese whisky, including five key distilleries to collect.
A lthough there is record of very small amounts of Japanese whisky distilled as far back as the late 1800s, it was not until the early 20th century that the category began to be produced on a commercial level. Japanese whisky may therefore be young compared to other styles of whisky from countries like Scotland, Ireland, and the US, but nevertheless its rising popularity in the market – particularly over the last decade – has made it among the most collected whisky category today.
Essentially modeled after scotch whisky, its explosion in popularity led to age statement expressions from major distilleries disappearing – or skyrocketing in price when you could find them – as producers claimed that supply could not keep up with demand. There has been some correction in recent years, as prices have subsided a bit and age statement bottles have returned.
There has also been a push to legally define what Japanese whisky is by the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association. Starting in 2021, the group set some very specific guidelines to define the category. This was in response to some producers bottling whisky produced outside of Japan in the country and labeling it Japanese whisky, either as a blend or sometimes on its own. The main regulations set by the JSLMA, which it should be noted are still voluntary, say that in order to be called Japanese whisky all production steps should take place in Japan, and the spirit should be bottled at a minimum of 80 proof. Large companies such as Suntory and Nikka have followed these guidelines and specified expressions as “world blends” that included whisky from other countries, and many smaller producers have come onboard as well. Recently, a new JSLMA logo was unveiled that will appear on bottles that meet these guidelines, but the hope is that Japanese whisky will one day get GI (geographical indicator) status and the rules will be legally binding.
The History of Japanese Whisky
The first distillery to open in Japan was Yamazaki, which was founded by Shinjiro Torii in a suburb of Kyoto in 1923. Torii was a pharmaceutical wholesaler who started importing Akadama port wine, blending it, and selling it before turning to whisky production, which happened to be his real passion. Torii hired chemist and businessman Masataka Taketsuru to help run the distillery based on his previous experience studying in Scotland and working at a few distilleries there. Taketsuru enrolled at the University of Glasgow in 1918 where he studied chemistry and had an apprenticeship at Longmorn, among others. After meeting his wife Rita Cowan, the two returned to Japan in 1920.
Taketsuru worked at Yamazaki and helped to launch Suntory Shirofuda, the first Japanese whisky which was ultimately a failure. Taketsuru ultimately set out on his own and founded his own company, Dai Nippon Kaju K.K., on the northern island of Hokkaido in the town of Yoichi. This would ultimately become Nikka, now Japan’s second largest whisky company. In the meantime, Torii launched Suntory Kakubin in 1937, which turned out to be a great success and is still the name of Japan’s best-selling blend. Concurrently, Taketsuru built the Yoichi distillery on Hokkaido, but initially produced spirits made from apples including wine and brandy. It wasn’t until 1940 that the first Nikka Whisky would become available to consumers, followed by other blends such as Nikka Black.
Both companies continued to build other distilleries around Japan. Suntory opened a grain whisky distillery, Chita, in 1972 on the Chita Peninsula in the southern part of the country, and opened another malt distillery, Hakushu, in the Japanese Alps a year later. It wasn’t until 1984 that the first Suntory single malt was released, Yamazaki 12, followed by the Hibiki blend in 1989 and the first Hakushu single malt in 1994. Nikka was busy building other production plants and facilities over the years as well. Miyagikyo opened in 1969, another distillery dedicated to distilling malt whisky, and Nikka Pure Malt was subsequently released in 1984 as a blend of malt whiskies produced at Nikka’s distilleries. In 1989, Nikka acquired the Ben Nevis distillery in Scotland and would use it in its world blends. That same year, 12-year-old single malts from Yoichi and Miyagikyo were released.
Suntory and Nikka may be the biggest names in Japanese whisky, but they are by no means the only ones. Karuizawa was founded in 1955 and produced single malt whisky until its closure in 2000. The distillery has reopened under the same name, but the whisky from the original distillery’s casks now sells for astronomical prices at auction due to its rarity and high quality. The Mars distillery opened its doors in 1960, but relocated and really became what we know today in the mid-1980s. Mars currently operates two distilleries, Tsunuki and Komagatake, the latter of which is the highest-altitude Japanese distillery at 2,600 feet (it was mothballed for nearly 20 years starting in the early 1990s). Chichibu is even newer, starting production in 2008 which makes it the first distillery to open in Japan since the 1970s. There are now a handful of smaller, independent distilleries making whisky in the country as well.
Five Key Distilleries to Collect
Yamazaki
Yamazaki, located on the outskirts of Kyoto, is Suntory’s flagship distillery, and its oldest. The distillery opened in 1923, but obviously things have changed quite a bit since those early years. In fact, the distillery underwent a renovation a few years ago and reopened to the public in 2023 with new tours and a redesigned tasting lounge. There are 12 pot stills – six wash stills and six spirit stills – each with a different shape and size that are used to produce different styles of whisky. The new make spirit is then aged in a range of cask types, including bourbon, sherry, and Japanese mizunara oak. The three main expressions produced at Yamazaki are single malts aged for 12, 18, and 25 years, but there have been some much older whiskies released over the years that have become high-priced collectibles. Yamazaki 55 is the oldest whisky to date from the distillery, a blend of whiskies distilled in the 1960s that was aged in American white oak and mizunara casks. It’s also the most valuable Japanese whisky ever released with prices approaching US$800,000 at auction.
Yamazaki at Auction
Hakushu
Hakushu is Suntory’s other malt whisky distillery, a beautiful and bucolic facility located high up in the Japanese Alps outside of Tokyo. Like Yamazaki, there are 12 stills there, each making a different style of whisky that is aged in various types of casks. Unlike Yamazaki, the distillery uses some peated malt in the mashbill, so the whisky in the 12, 18, and 25-year-old expressions has soft but noticeable smoky notes on the palate. There are no Hakushu releases that compare to the Yamazaki 55 as far as age, but there are some valuable expressions nonetheless that have been released over the years, particularly some of the unique single cask expressions and a limited-edition version of the 25-year-old.
Karuizawa
This distillery was revived a few years ago, at least as far as its name is concerned, and is currently making whisky again, but the original is a true legend of Japanese whisky. Karuizawa opened in the 1950s and made single malt until closing in 2000 (it was demolished in 2016). The distillery followed a more Scottish approach, according to author Dave Broom, making just one style of whisky (instead of the many styles that other distilleries make) that was originally meant for blending. In the years after it ceased production, various expressions have been released from specially selected casks that have stunned whisky fans with their quality, rarity, and exorbitant prices.
Karuizawa at Auction
Hanyu
Hanyu is another ghost distillery that has been revived, and is currently producing whisky once again. The original Hanyu distillery operated for more than half a century after being founded by Isouji Akuto, a 19th-generation member of a sake-making family. It released its first single malt in 1980 and closed for good just 20 years later, and Akuto’s grandson Ichiro took control of the remaining 400 or so casks of whisky. The most famous collection from the long dormant distillery is Ichiro’s Malt Playing Card Series, which was first released in 2005 as a set of just four bottles of whisky, each featuring a different playing card on the intricately-designed label. These rare whiskies are now valuable collector’s items, and the few full sets that have come up for auction over the years have fetched close to a million dollars.
Hanyu at Auction
Chichibu
This distillery was founded in 2004 by the aforementioned Ichiro Akuto, and started producing whisky four years later in 2008. The casks used for Ichiro’s Malt Playing Card Series are stored at the Chichibu distillery, but the two pot stills located there are busy producing new spirits that are aged mostly in bourbon barrels, along with rum, sherry, wine, and mizunara oak in the mix. There are a few key releases from the distillery, including the On the Way series which shows the progression of different whiskies as they age. That series culminated in a 10-year-old single malt called the First Ten that was bottled in 2020.
Chichibu at Auction
Notable Japanese Whisky Blends
Hibiki
Hibiki is probably the most famous blended Japanese whisky, and for good reason – both the age stated and non-age-stated versions are highly regarded amongst fans and aficionados. The former bottles are pretty hard to find these days because the 12 and 17-year-old expressions were discontinued a few years ago when Japanese whisky was at its peak of popularity. A few new NAS versions (which are still quite good) have taken their place, expertly composed blends of malt and grain whisky from Suntory’s three main distilleries – Yamazaki, Hakushu, and Chita. More recently, a pair of ultra-aged whiskies were added to the Hibiki lineup. In 2022, a 30-year-old expression was released, and last year an even older 40-year-old whisky was unveiled. That is the oldest Hibiki to date, a blend of five different types of whisky anchored by a 1978 vintage Yamazaki single malt that was aged in American oak casks.
Nikka
Like Suntory, Nikka discontinued some of its age-stated single malts over the past decade, but it has slowly been bringing them back into circulation. Still, the company’s blended whiskies are worth exploring. While they might not command the same astronomical prices as something like Hibiki 40, there is at least one world blend that comes close – Nikka Nine Decades, a marriage of whisky distilled from the 1940s to the 2020s in both Japan and Scotland that was released to celebrate Nikka’s 90th anniversary. From the Barrel is another excellent blend that is composed of more than 100 malt and grain whiskies. It originally launched in 1985 and stands strong to this day. And The Nikka Tailored, which came out a decade ago, is notable for the use of the distillery’s excellent Coffey Grain whisky as a core component of the blend.
Nikka at Auction
Young Distilleries to Watch
The Japanese whisky category has grown rapidly over the past few years, and while Nikka and Suntory are still the lion’s share of the market, there are some much smaller brands and distilleries of note that are making excellent whisky that conforms to the JSLMA guidelines. Tsunuki is the newest distillery from Mars Whisky. It opened in the Kagoshima prefecture in 2016, and starting in 2020 the distillery has released some interesting new expressions like The First, a lightly peated single malt. Akkeshi is another new distillery that opened in 2016 on Hokkaido, the same island as Yoichi. It has released a few different blends and single malts over the past few years, using various cask types to differentiate them.
Sakurao is even newer, having been founded in 2018. In addition to gin, the distillery has released a few different single malts that were aged in different locations to show how different climates and warehouses affect the whisky’s flavor. Nagahama is another distillery that launched in 2016 on the shore of Lake Biwa. It has released various iterations of a world blend called Amahagen along with a limited number of single malts. Finally, Kanosuke is another newcomer that has a range of expressions to try – a single malt, a blend, and the best option, a pot still grain whisky that was inspired by the single pot still whiskey of Ireland.
Japanese Whisky at Sotheby’s
Sotheby’s has featured some truly spectacular Japanese whiskies at auction over the years, representing both the historic distilleries and newer operations. Suntory lots have included the beautiful Hibiki 35 Year Old Sakaida Kakiemon XIV, a 35-year-old blended whisky that comes in an ornate floral decanter, and the Yamazaki 34 Years Old Cask, a single cask expression distilled in 1984 and bottled in 2018 from the company’s flagship distillery. Ghost distillery Karuizawa has been represented with, among other lots, an incredible 1952 vintage distilled in 1960 and aged in a single sherry cask. This is a stellar example of the style from this esteemed distillery that comes in a handmade wooden case. Lots from Mars Komagatake include a 30-year-old single malt distilled in 1986 and aged for 30 years in a sherry butt, a rare offering from the distillery at this elevated age. And the new school of Japanese distilleries is represented by lots including Kanosuke Distiller's Cask, a young whisky aged for three years in American white oak and finished in a red wine barrel, and another young expression from Sakurao that is a single cask whisky aged in a peated cask to imbue it with soft smoky notes.
