Nagahama Bewery – in the Shiga Prefecture, smack in the middle of Honshu near Lake Biwa and Mount Ibuki – is famous for its Nagahama Roman Beer. When their team visited Eden Mill Distillery in Scotland…

Hombo Shuzo Company opened her Mars Shinshu Distillery already in 1985 (however closed from 1992 until 2011) and recently opened a second distillery: Mars Tsunuki. It is the southern most Japanese dis…

Nirasaki Distillery? Errr… never heard of ‘m. This might be one of those unknown Japanese distilleries – at the foot of Mount Fuji, the marketeers say – of which you can hardly find any info online. Does…

Japanese whisky is still booming. With Japanese regulations full of holes it does not come as a surprise that some people take advantage. Matsui Shozo promotes their Kurayoshi as Japanese whisky, but it…

Matsui Shuzo was founded in Kurayoshi, Tottori Prefecture, northwest of Kyoto and northeast of Hiroshima. It lies near the Japanese sea. Kurayoshi can be translated into ‘the city of water and green’.…

While Matsui Distillery has a whole range of whisky under the labels of Kurayoshi and Tottori, this is not Japanese whisky! Regulations allows producers to source their whisky anywhere in the world and…

Not all Japanese whisky is Japanese. Something you will discover to your shock when reading the recommended book Whisky Rising from Stefan Van Eycken. Now, it’s not that big of an issue if the producer…

Suntory arguably designed this Hokuto 12 Year Old Pure Malt in response to Nikka’s Taketsuru Pure Malt. This Hokuto appeared in 2004, but has been discontinued since 2010, despite the big success. Get…

This lesser known blend by Nikka is meant for the Japanese market. The label says ‘Malt Base Whisky’. What does that mean? That it contains malt whisky and thus is a blend, I suppose, as this Nikka is…

Although the distillery is not mentioned on the label, it is a public secret that this is a Mortlach. Ian MacLeod has bottled a couple of these Speysiders under the ‘Cigar Malt’ banner – which made some…