The Angels' Share - The dandies' drunkyard. 5 Best Japanese Whiskies. Last week hummus and yoga were “in”, and while they’re not out yet, there’s a new top dog in Popularville: Japanese Whisky.
Notice the spelling — that’s whisky with a -y, like Scotch whisky, not whiskey with an -ey, the spelling used for U.S. and Irish varietals. The spelling harkens to Japanese whisky’s humble beginnings, which revolve around the Narcissus and Goldmund-like stories of two men. The first, Shinjiro Torii, was a pharmaceutical wholesaler who dreamed of making a distinctly Japanese whisky for the Japanese people. The second, Masataka Taketsuru, was an organic chemistry summer student at the University of Glasgow who learned the craft of whisky-making under the roofs of several Scottish distilleries. When Taketsuru returned to Japan in the early 1920s, Torri hired him. Well, we did the grunt work for you, tasting five of Japan’s finest 12-year-old whiskies: Yamazaki, Hakushu, Nikka Taketsuru, Nikka Miyagikyo and Hibiki.
Suntory Yamazaki Suntory Hakushu Nikka Miyagikyo. The Serious Eats Guide to Japanese Whisky. First things first, let's set the mood.
Perhaps re-watch the brilliant scene from Lost in Translation where Bill Murray's character shoots a commercial for Japanese whisky. All set? Great. Japan has the largest number of whisky distilleries after Scotland and the United States, but up until very recently, Suntory was the only brand of Japanese whisky available for sale in the US, starting in 1990 with a single expression, and expanding the line with one additional expression in 2005, and then finally two more in the past three years. Late last year, Suntory's major rival, Nikka, joined the party, bringing two whiskies stateside to test the market with Anchor Distilling as their import/distribution partner. Japanese Whisky Style (Almost) all Japanese whiskies are Scotch-style whisky (here's an interesting history to how whisky was brought to Japan for extra credit).
Japanese whiskeys are very much the fine-wine-drinker's take on whiskey. Suntory Yamazaki Single Malt Suntory Hibiki 12. How Japanese Single Malts Surpassed Scotland’s Finest. My first sip of a great Japanese single-malt whisky was back in 2004, when the 18-year-old Yamazaki was first introduced into the U.S.
I found its suave smoothness and elegance as sleek as a new Lexus. It had the familiar spicy, caramel-and-honey notes of a luxury single malt from Scotland but with its own exotic appeal from partial aging in Japanese mizunara oak. Since then, Japan has been quietly scooping up gold medals at world whisky competitions, and in 2012, the 25-year-old Yamazaki beat out 300 of the world’s single malts in an international blind tasting.
Now, Bloomberg Pursuits will report in its Spring 2014 issue, Japanese whisky seems to have reached a tipping point. Half a dozen additional brands have entered the U.S.; an all-Japanese-whisky bar, Mizuwari, has opened in London; and prices of rare bottles have skyrocketed at recent Hong Kong auctions. More from Bloomberg Pursuits: