Yamazaki

The Yamazaki Distillery is the flag ship distillery of its owner Suntory and has definitely earned its stripes as a very successful and distinctive producer of single malt whisky, one of the only few Japanese whisky distilleries among its numerous Scottish competitors. Despite this, the Yamazaki Distillery is absolutely no opponent to be trifled with.

The Yamazaki 12 years old Single Malt was released in 1984 as the first market-orientated Japanese whisky in the world, and is therefore a true pioneer among the Japanese single malt whiskies. Rightfully, the most astonishing achievement is that Bill Murray has awarded the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 as the “Best whisky in the world” in the Whisky Bible’s 11-year history in 2015, with a staggering 97,5 marks out of 100 leaving its Scottish competitors behind!

The Yamazaki Distillery is located in the city of Shimamoto, Osaka prefecture in the southern region of the Japanese mainland. Being situated in this misty valley at the foot of Mount Tennozan, where the Katsura, Kizu and Uji Rivers rivers confluence to form a beautiful and very pure water source named “Minasen”, the Yamazaki Distillery’s surroundings strikes us as a fairy-like appearance. This location wasn’t just randomly chosen by Shinjiro Torii, the man who founded Suntory in 1899 and established Yamazaki in 1923 as the first commercial Japanese whisky distillery. Shinjiro Torii’s philosophy considering the manufacture of the perfect whisky was all about the use of the perfect water source and the natural environmental conditions, a formula which would ultimately result in the undisputed success of Yamazaki.

The Osaka region’s climate is characterized for its seasonal fluctuating temperatures such as cold winters and warm humid summers, which is a perfect climate for the spirits maturation. These elemental circumstances in which the Yamazaki spirit’s maturation process takes place, are very distinctive compared to the much desired Scotch single malt whiskies produced in Scotland. The nearby Yamazaki Station in Kyoto serves as the distillery’s distribution channel, and the surrounding Minasen water source deriving from the confluence of the three rivers, serves the best of quality water to provide for the Yamazaki’s spirit. These strategic choices being made in the past, contributed to the fact that Shinjiro Torii created the Yamazaki Single Malt to become unlike any other single malt whisky.

What’s worth mentioning, is that the Minasen water source had previously build up to its name in the Japanese feudal history due to its suburb water quality. During the 16th century, the legendary founder of the traditional Japanese tea ceremony named Sen no Rikyu established his first tea room in Kyoto, along the shores of the riverbed of the Minasen. This tea room was named “Tai-an”, and has kept remained as a national treasure.

One of the most distinctive characteristics of the Yamazaki Distillery production process today, is the difference in the use of distilling equipment in order to produce a broad variety of different whiskies. The Yamazaki Distillery uses sixteen pot stills who are all differently shaped, both wooden and steel washbacks for the fermentation process and a different range of casks to supply for the maturing process, such as the extraordinary Mizunara wood. Therefore, the Yamazaki Single Malt offers the most diverse range of single malt whiskies in the world!