Yamazaki 12YO

The Yamazaki is the oldest single malt distillery in Japan, having been founded in 1923 by Suntory founder Shinjiro Torii. Located in the idyllic Vale of Yamazaki, between the cities of Osaka and Kyoto, the site was chosen by master distiller Masataka Taketsuru for the purity of the local water – and confirmed by the pragmatic Torii due to its proximity to two important markets. There is a direct train from Kyoto centre which takes around 30 minutes (the journey from Osaka is slightly longer), and the distillery offers tours with English and French audio guides to those tourists who master the mysteries of Japanese railway stations. Taketsuru was a singular figure in the Japanese whisky industry. After studying organic chemistry in the University of Glasgow, he worked in the Scottish whisky industry before returning to Japan. After helping establish Torii's Suntory whisky interests, he founded his own distilling business in Yoichi, on the island of Hokkaido. That company went on to become Nikka, Japan's other major whisky producer. The Yamazaki distillery contains 12 stills and produces a raft of expressions at different ages and in different finishes, as well as providing a malt base for Suntory's blended whiskies. Unlike a typical Scottish distillery which produces one 'base' style, which is aged for different periods in different types of wood, Yamazaki's expressions are made up of different whisky lots, married together for six months before bottling. The standard Yamazaki offering is the 12 Year Old, and Yamazaki is the top-selling Japanese single malt, with a 60 percent share of the domestic market. It has been successful overseas, too, winning acclaim from several sources. In 2015, Jim Murray's Whisky Bible named the 2013 Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask as its whisky of the year, and Yamazaki whiskies have won medals consistently at the International Spirits Challenge.