Matsui Shuzo (松井酒造), the Tottori-based producer behind the Kurayoshi (倉吉) whisky brand, has opened preorders for two limited bottles marking 2027, the Year of the Sheep in the Japanese zodiac. Announced on October 23, 2026, the pair are the sixth installment of the company’s annual eto (干支), or zodiac, label series: a pure malt called Kurayoshi 2027 Special Release and a zodiac-label edition of its Daisen Mizunara Cask blend. Both ship from early November, in time for Japan’s New Year gift season. The release is small, but it shows how a company now building a 20-still distillery keeps cash flowing from affordable, export-friendly bottles while its own spirit matures.
The headline bottle is the Kurayoshi 2027 Special Release, whose Japanese name carries the characters 未帯, literally “sheep sash,” a reference to the band of design that wraps the label. It is a pure malt bottled at 43% ABV in a 700ml bottle, with a suggested retail price of 4,400 yen including tax (roughly $29). Matsui Shuzo says the malt whiskies were reduced to bottling strength with deep groundwater from Mount Daisen (大山), the volcano that dominates the Tottori skyline. The label shows a flock of sheep with stylized mist and pine motifs, symbols of good fortune, and is made from Kiryu-ori (桐生織), a silk weaving tradition from Gunma Prefecture with more than 1,000 years of history.
The second bottle is a zodiac-label version of Matsui Whisky Daisen Mizunara Cask, a blended whisky of malt and grain at 40% ABV, also 700ml, priced at 2,200 yen including tax (about $15). Matsui Shuzo describes it as carrying the “oriental” aromatics associated with mizunara, Japanese oak, along with a mellow palate. The announcement does not say how long either whisky spent in wood, whether the mizunara influence comes from full maturation or a finishing period, or how many bottles were produced. It says only that sales close once the allocation is reached.
Preorders opened at 4:00 p.m. JST on October 23 on Matsui Shuzo’s official Japanese online shop. Retail shipments begin in early November, while online orders are scheduled to ship from late November. The sheep was chosen, the company says, because a flock grazing calmly together symbolizes family security and peace.
Why this matters
Zodiac bottles are a familiar New Year product in Japan, where a bottle with the coming year’s animal on it is a standard gift for family visits and business greetings. Matsui Shuzo has turned the idea into a fixed annual release, and the 2027 pricing tells you who it is for. At 4,400 yen, the pure malt sits well below the craft single malts that dominate our recent news coverage, most of which now launch above 10,000 yen. These are gifting bottles meant to sell in volume, not collector releases.
The more interesting context is what Matsui Shuzo is doing behind them. In September the company broke ground on a new distillery in Yurihama, Tottori, planned to start distilling in April 2027 and eventually house 20 stills. Spirit from those stills cannot be sold as standard-compliant Japanese whisky before 2030, because the industry standard requires at least three years of aging in Japan. Until then, products like the zodiac series carry the business. The press release also puts Matsui brand distribution at more than 65 countries. In its own materials earlier this year, the company cited more than 50. That is a notable widening of the export footprint in a short time.
Two words on the label deserve attention from careful buyers. The first is “pure malt.” In Japan, the term usually means a blend of malt whiskies from more than one distillery, what Scotland calls a blended malt. The second is what the label says about origin. The release describes “carefully selected malt whiskies” but does not say where they were distilled. Under the voluntary standard adopted by Japan’s whisky makers in 2021, only whisky mashed, fermented, distilled, aged and bottled in Japan may use the words “Japanese whisky.” Our guide to what counts as Japanese whisky sets out the full rules, and our Matsui Shuzo and Kurayoshi explainer covers why the company’s labels have drawn close attention from trade press in the past. The packaging choice is worth noting too. Like Suntory’s use of Echizen washi paper on Hibiki, a Kiryu-ori label anchors the bottle in Japanese craft for buyers abroad as well as at home.
Related guides
What “world blended whisky” means on a Japanese label
Mizunara oak: why Japan’s rarest cask wood matters
For readers outside Japan
The announcement mentions only Matsui Shuzo’s Japanese online shop and Japanese retail shipments. It says nothing about export. Given that the company already sells Kurayoshi, Tottori and Matsui-branded bottles in dozens of markets, a few zodiac bottles may reach importers. Nothing confirms that yet, so do not preorder from abroad expecting delivery. Many Japanese shops will not ship spirits overseas, and some countries, including the US, restrict personal imports. Our guide to importing whisky from Japan explains which routes actually work.
If you are in Japan this winter, the zodiac bottles are a low-cost New Year gift, and liquor shops typically stock this kind of seasonal label from November into January. Our guide to where to buy Japanese whisky in Tokyo lists the shops worth checking. Read the back label before you buy, and use our notes on reading Japanese whisky labels if the wording is unclear.
If you want a Japanese whisky at a similar price that you can buy at home, our list of Japanese whisky under $50 covers widely exported bottles. For a New Year present with a clearer story, our Japanese whisky gift guide sorts options by budget. We will report in the news section if Matsui Shuzo confirms overseas distribution of the 2027 bottles.
Source: Matsui Shuzo via PR TIMES (Japanese)