Japanese Whisky Wins Honor

[MacEanruig]

I hope that this is a wake up call to Scotland. Nonetheless, I still prefer my single malts from Scotland over any other.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/foodanddr...the-world.html

[Tobus]

This is just one guy's opinion, right?

[Tarheel]

I noticed one "telling" question near the end of the article that may give a clue to this quandary. The best and finest malts from Scotland may be kept for the best and finest drinkers and not for the general public. Just a thought for all those who have a collection of 12 year olds sitting around aging for that "special occasion".

[CDNSushi]

You may ask The Wizard of BC what he thought of the Japanese spirits I brought back from Japan a couple years ago... But from my recollection, they were tasty! :-)

[Liam]

I too have had the opportunity to sample a number of fine Japanese single malts, including Yamizaki and an 18 yr old Suntori. Just as the Japanese showed the auto world, they are very good at copying and indeed improving upon the original. That being said, the criterion for judging any beverage, wine, whisky, etc. is very much determined by the arranger of the competition. As I write this, I am sipping on a dram of Glenmorangie original. I find it hard to find fault. In fact, I may have to have a second to to make sure!

[bwat]

I hope that this is a wake up call to Scotland.

I'm not a drinker so I'm not able to make qualitative judgements but I have no doubt that the Japanese are making fine whisky. However, whilst winning accolades is one thing, marketing is another. When people like you buy two bottles of Japanese whisky in a row, then we can talk about a wake up call.

From http://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/what...facts-figures/:

Scotch Whisky sells three times it nearest rival whisky

[creagantuirc]

I can also attest to the excellence of Japanese whisky. However one thing must be noted before the Scotch whisky industry can have good cause to shake in its boots.

The simple (and sad) fact is that the best of Japanese whisky, truly world-beating exceptional spirit, is no longer in production.

And it can mainly be put down to the owners, along with the previous whisky downturn which also claimed several Scottish Distillers.

Karuizawa, now the hottest whisky to get your hands on (as long as you have deep pockets!) was only discovered by the wider whisky world near the end of the distillery's life.
Despite the original aim of aping Macallan and actually succeeding in creating sublime whisky of a different sort, its various owners wasted its potential by diluting and blending it into inferior products... which failed to set the market alight.
And even when the world discovered that single cask Karuizawa was exceptional and there were offers to take over and run the distillery-Kirin, the last owners, refused out of sheer bloody-mindedness and sold off the site to developers.

Kawasaki, once part of the same stable as Karuizawa, was recognised alas long long after it had ceased production. It had only been used for blends and had ceased production in the 1980s.
By chance 8 casks were found in an old warehouse, and like Karuizawa the single cask stuff was fantastic.
But by that time it was already a ghost, so to speak.

Hanyu whisky is another famous name, the last of its stocks being bought up by collectors as we speak. It was a victim of the whisky downturn, again its spirit mainly used in blends. The grandson of Hanyu's founder has done much to spread the reputation of Hanyu far and wide, and its spiritual successor (;D) he himself founded, Chuchibu, is already extremely popular in the whisky world.

There is also Shinshu Mars, whose old stock is often very good-their "revival" spirit is still extremely young though, and time will have to tell on that one.

I feel that Chichibu, Akashi (another up-and-coming young distillery) along with stalwarts Suntory and Nikka can challenge Scotch producers both now and in the future-but there is a long way to go before Japanese producers would take any significant bite out of its market share.

[Destin_scot]

I noticed one "telling" question near the end of the article that may give a clue to this quandary. The best and finest malts from Scotland may be kept for the best and finest drinkers and not for the general public. Just a thought for all those who have a collection of 12 year olds sitting around aging for that "special occasion".

The problem with having a "collection of 12 year olds sitting around aging for that "special occasion"", is that once the whisky is out of the cask and in the bottle it doesn't properly "age" anymore. Then once you open the bottle and expose that whisky to oxygen, then it will really start to "age", and not gracefully or in a good way. So, I applaud those distillers who are pushing the edge and creating whiskies that are created for taste and are being judged on taste/aroma/appearance and not necessarily pedigree, regardless of origin, (remember the Japanese distiller who won, learned the whisky making process in Scotland)

[tky58]

A little off topic but the bottom of the page had an ad for Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate. That is now make by Hershey's in the US and has lost its distinctive taste and smoothness.

[Son of the Rock]

You better believe I've heard about this, on more than one occassion. XD

That being said, Japan has been one of the best countries in the world for whisky for decades now. Yamazaki, along with others such as Yoichi, produce some very good whiskies. We'll see what happens next year, as these lists change all the time, but of course with all the brilliant and historic breweries in multiple different countries, you can't expect Scottish whisky to top the lists all the time.