Rewriting the rulebook

Over the past two decades, Japanese whisky has seen an almost unrivalled rise in popularity in the key whisky markets of Europe and North America. This growing interest, while propelling the Japanese industry to new heights, has led to long-term availability issues for some of the nation’s most respected distilleries as demand far outstripped supply of mature whisky – creating opportunities for new players to step into a sector that, for most of its century-long history, has existed almost exclusively to serve the country’s domestic market with reasonably priced blends.

This growing mainstream success outside of Japan, compounded by a general lack of availability and corresponding increases in retail and resale prices, has led to the entire Japanese category coming under greater scrutiny than ever before. The result: a maelstrom of confusion for Japanese whisky consumers, which has