Category: Guides
Explainers on Japanese whisky, its rules and its history.
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Single cask Japanese whisky: how to read the label
What single cask means on a Japanese whisky label, why it has no legal definition, and how cask numbers, dates…
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Why so little Japanese whisky uses Japanese barley
Most Japanese whisky is made from imported malt. Why domestic barley is rare, what the law requires, and the distilleries…
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Peated Japanese whisky: who uses peat and where it’s dug
Who makes peated Japanese whisky and where the peat comes from, from Scottish Highland and Islay peat to a Hokkaido…
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Japanese whisky cask types: what distilleries actually use
Barrel, hogshead, puncheon, sherry butt, mizunara: the casks Japanese distilleries use, with sizes and sourcing from Suntory and Chichibu.
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Japanese grain whisky: who makes it and why it matters
Only three sites make most of Japan’s grain whisky. How Chita, Nikka’s Coffey stills and Kirin’s Fuji Gotemba differ, and…
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Reading Japanese whisky awards without being misled
Gold medals and ‘world’s best’ claims cover Japanese whisky labels. Here is what WWA, ISC, IWSC and TWSC awards actually…
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Cask strength Japanese whisky: what the number means
What cask strength means on a Japanese whisky label, why Japan’s climate moves the number, and which bottles are genuinely…
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Koji whisky: the rice spirit Japan will not call whisky
Koji whisky is barrel-aged rice spirit converted by mold, not malt. Why Japan bars it from the whisky name, who…
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Ichiro’s Malt and Grain: world blend or Japanese whisky?
Ichiro’s Malt and Grain is labelled World Blended Whisky, not Japanese whisky. Here is why, what is in the blend,…
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Nikka Coffey Grain: why an obsolete still is the point
A single-grain whisky made mostly from corn in a still patented in 1830 – what is in the bottle, how…
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Kaiyo whisky: the mizunara bottle that divides drinkers
Kaiyo is a blending house, not a distillery: Japanese malt, Ariake mizunara casks, three months at sea, and a deliberate…
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What Japanese whisky age statements actually mean
Why the number on a label is the youngest whisky in the blend, why it vanished from Japanese bottles for…