Award-winning Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 proves Japanese whiskies are gaining global popularity
Whiskies from the Land of the Rising Sun have become prized drinks as demand from connoisseurs grows
It is Friday night, the band is in full swing and the glasses are clinking at Maduro, a swanky bar in Tokyo's Grand Hyatt hotel. Behind the bar counter, candy-coloured drinks bottles gleam beneath a magnificent gas-lamp chandelier, including some of the 300 whiskies Madura boasts among its line-up. But one category is conspicuously under-represented - Japanese whisky. "We used to have so many Japanese whiskies we couldn't get them all on the menu. But lately we can't source as many because of their huge popularity," the bartender explains.
It is a grievance shared by whisky connoisseurs around the world. Japanese whisky is enjoying an unprecedented surge in demand thanks to high-profile awards and growing international enthusiasm for Japanese culture and cuisine.
In the past decade or so, Japanese whisky brands have lapped up a string of prestigious awards at renowned competitions, including International Spirits Challenge and World Whisky Awards. The latest triumph for Japanese whisky came last November when whisky guru, Jim Murray, crowned Beam Suntory's Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 the best whisky in the world. In his 2015 Whisky Bible, Murray hailed the Yamazaki 2013 as "near indescribable genius", and gave it 97.5 points out of 100.
That victory coincided at home with the airing of Massan, a hugely popular series on NHK, Japan's public broadcaster, which fictionalises the life of Masataka Taketsuru, the father of Japanese whisky, who travelled to Scotland in the early 1900s and brought home the secrets of whisky-making, along with a Scottish wife.
Domestic demand for Japanese whisky has skyrocketed ever since the programme began airing last autumn. Overseas, the popularity of Japanese whisky has grown in tandem with a surging international appetite for Japanese cuisine, says Mamoru Tsuchiya, a whisky writer.
While Japanese whisky has been highly regarded by connoisseurs for decades, the recent strength of demand has meant that prized brands are in short supply and can fetch huge premiums at whisky auctions and on the internet.
"The situation is abnormal now," says Takuya Yamane, general manager of marketing department II at Asahi Beer, owner of Nikka Whisky, which was founded by Taketsuru. In January, Nikka saw demand soar 300 per cent year-on-year for its Taketsuru brand blended malt whisky. Not surprisingly, the 3,000 bottles of Yamazaki 2013, which Suntory released exclusively in Europe, were quickly snapped up and have resurfaced at internet auctions at many times the original price.
So, what is it about Japanese whisky that makes it so special? In bestowing Yamazaki 2013 the top prize, Murray praised it in no uncertain terms, calling it "a single malt which no Scotch can at the moment get anywhere near".
While not everyone might agree with that view, what is clear is that Japanese whisky has come a long way from its roots in Scotland and that the result has been to many a whisky connoisseur's liking.