A century since its founder created a Japanese whisky house to match and surpass the West, Yamazaki has more than fulfilled his ambition
In 1923, the founder of Suntory, Shinjiro Torii, opened the doors to Yamazaki, Japan’s oldest and most revered whisky distillery. Located near Kyoto in the centre of this island nation, it led the way to Japan’s worldwide dominance on the global whisky market.
It’s been a long journey for the distillery. It faced down slumps and domestic over-demand many times before coasting to record profits of ¥56 billion (€368 million) in 2022. The current surge started in the early 2000s when its Yamazaki 12 bottling started to bring awards home and turned heads on the international whisky scene. Now, more than two decades later, the distillery still battles to meet the demand that grew from a seemingly insatiable global market.
This is all good news for margins though. Once a whisky becomes rare its price can strive to meet the deep pockets of its fans. Luckily for Yamazaki, there are no signs of its collectability slowing down any time soon.
Sotheby’s reached a record resale price in its New York showrooms in 2022 when a 55-year-old Yamazaki that had previously sold for $20,000 dollars went under the hammer for $600,000.
While this was the highest price paid for a bottle at that time many other bottles in the Yamazaki core collection content to grow in value.
Mature stocks are naturally the most sought after and, although the company’s many warehouses are filled to the rafters, they still can’t meet demand. The owners famously refuse to reveal the quantities of stock currently in oak or how many bottles they take from a cask, always leaving the waiting whisky fans thirsty for more.
The best way to learn about Yamazaki is by finding the rare chance to drink it of course. Here are three bottles on our shelves that might entice you to splurge:
Yamazaki 18
The elite of the whisky world enjoys comparing superlatives and competing with their drinking locations for this revered 18-year-old single malt. It was born a champion, sitting neatly in the centre point of Yamazaki’s core collection between the 12- and 25-year-old bottlings.
Matured in sherry, bourbon and Mizanura casks, this triple-wood release is a prestige pour that has won awards all over the globe.
The majority of the whisky in the bottle has been matured in sherry, ensuring the dark amber colour of this fine release can be spotted at a glance. The remainder then matured in ex-bourbon and exemplary Mizunara, creating a wonderfully fruity, oak and spiced-smoke personality.
Its makers herald the aroma of raisins, apricots, café au lait and Mizunara vanilla. These lead to a palate of blackberry and jam, dark chocolate and vanilla with a spiced, smooth and creamy finish with undercurrents of marmalade.
Bottled at 43%, it’s a wonderfully decadent whisky that remains delicate yet flavour packed to the end.
Yamazaki 12: The Owner’s Cask
The Suntory Owner’s Cask series was a cask purchase programme that allowed investors or collectors to buy a single cask of Yamazaki or Hakushu distillery single malt and mature it. Various age statements emerged and, over time, some of these bottles made it into auction rooms as private sales.
It’s a very collectible series and this bottle stands out for having the traditional gold and black label on the bottle. The majority of the others have a white label. It is also reported that the cask this bottle came from was left to mature in the Yamazaki maturation cellar, whereas most other casks were moved elsewhere to mature. Small provenance details like this are hugely valuable to collectors.
This 46% release is one of only 104 bottles that were produced and is considered to be an example of one of the rarest 12-year-old Yamazaki releases.
Yamazaki 25
This is the top end of the Yamazaki collection. At 25 years old, it stands head and shoulders above its siblings yet follows a similar casking of sherry, bourbon and Mizunara. The Japanese oak leads here though, injecting so much of its personality and smooth complex nature into this also sherry and bourbon-matured single malt.
A wonderful amber colour leads to smoky Mizunara on the nose with rich scents of incense, persimmon and plum. The palate is equally rich with its makers celebrating notes of sandalwood, deep dark fruits, ginger and spice leading to a long luxurious finish that is punctuated with smoke and sweet oak wood.
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