Distiller Notes
#19 Whisky Advocate Top 20 Whiskies of 2023
An innovative new approach to Japanese Whisky as the world’s only distillery to craft, nurture, and age malt and grain whiskies on-site. Delicately sweet, fruity, and rich. Interwoven with a pleasantly long silky finish.
Professional Ratings
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Whisky Advocate
In creating this dram, Fuji master blender Jota Tanaka blends four styles of whisky, all produced and aged at Fuji Gotemba Distillery which is located at the base of Mount Fuji. The nose is delicate and softly sweet, calling to mind honey grahams, molasses, malt, a zip of lemon meringue, and baking spice. The richly textured palate is loaded with vanilla icing and marshmallow sweetness, malt, caramel, and dried mango, but there’s a complexity aided by bursts of black pepper and jalapeño. The peppery spice follows through on the finish, as does sweet vanilla cream.
Sharing a great deal with Scotch in terms of production methods and ingredients, today’s hugely successful commercial market of Japanese Whisky owes much to the research of Masataka Taketsuru. In 1918, this Japanese national travelled to Scotland with the intention of studying organic chemistry but instead became fascinated with Scotch Whisky production. Similar to Scotch Whisky, Japanese Whisky also uses malted barley as the fermentation base and long-term aging in wooden barrels. However, the often-used Mizunara oak, rather than French or American oak, imparts uniquely spicy and citrus-like characteristics to a Japanese Whisky.