Japanese Whisky

About

Japanese whisky, or Japanese whiskey as it's often searched, was built deliberately on the Scotch model and then refined into something with its own character. It's cleaner, more precise and more carefully blended than most people expect, and the best of it is among the most sought-after whisky in the world. That demand is also why prices here run higher than the age statements alone would suggest. We carry bottles from around $60 up to limited releases near $2,700, centered on Suntory's Yamazaki, Hakushu and Hibiki. We ship to most states, with an adult 21 or older required to sign at delivery. Japanese Whisky vs Scotch The family resemblance is real. Japanese whisky started in the 1920s with a founder who had trained in Scotland, and it still uses malted barley, copper pot stills and oak casks in much the same way. Most of it is spelled without the e for the same reason. The difference is structural. Scottish distilleries trade whisky with each other constantly, so a blender can draw on dozens of producers. Japanese distilleries largely don't. To get variety, each one makes many styles in-house, using different stills, yeasts and cask types under one roof. The result is a tendency toward balance and polish over the big regional personalities you get in Scotch. Fewer Japanese whiskies are heavily peated, and more of them are built to be drunk in a highball as well as neat. If you know single malt Scotch , Japanese whisky will feel familiar and slightly quieter. The Styles Single malt. Malted barley from one distillery, the same definition as in Scotland. Yamazaki and Hakushu are both single malts and they taste nothing alike. Blended. Malt and grain whisky combined, and the category Japan is arguably best at. Hibiki is the benchmark. Mizunara-aged. Not a legal style, but a signature one. Mizunara is a Japanese oak that's difficult to work with, porous and expensive, and it gives whisky a distinctive note of sandalwood, incense and coconut. Most producers use it as