Suntory’s Yamazaki 25 Year Old (山崎25年) has won the Trophy for Japanese whisky at the International Spirits Challenge (ISC) 2026, the top award in the category. The result was announced at the awards ceremony in London on October 6, 2026, and confirmed by Suntory Holdings (サントリーホールディングス) in a Japanese-language release the following day. Suntory also took the ISC’s Producer of the Year title for Japanese whisky for the seventh year in a row. For readers outside Japan, the news matters less as a medal count than as a signal: the oldest regular Yamazaki is now the most scrutinized bottle in Japanese whisky, and that tends to show up in its price and availability.
The win comes a month after Suntory announced the Yamazaki Refill Spanish Oak release, so the Yamazaki name has been in the news twice this autumn for very different reasons: one a new limited bottling, the other a recognition of the flagship’s oldest expression.
What was awarded, and to whom
The 31st International Spirits Challenge is held each year in the UK and drew several thousand entries across all categories this year, according to Suntory. In the whisky section, roughly ten judges, drawn from the blenders and distillery managers of whisky producers around the world, tasted more than 800 whiskies blind. Trophies go to the single highest-scoring entry in each category, which is why a Trophy carries more weight than the gold and double gold medals that are handed out in larger numbers.
Suntory quotes the judges as describing Yamazaki as a brand that represents world whisky, with a smooth texture, rich fruit and layered complexity that hold together well, and as a label that is always in contention for the highest honors. We have not tasted this year’s bottling ourselves, so we report the panel’s view rather than our own.
Yamazaki 25 is a single malt built from malt whiskies aged at least 25 years in a mix of cask types, including Mizunara (Japanese oak), Spanish oak and American oak. Suntory describes it as having an aromatic wood note, ripe fruit, a long sweetness and a deep acidity. If the Japanese oak element is new to you, our explainer on Mizunara oak whisky covers why it is so prized and so scarce.
Suntory’s other results in the Japanese whisky category were also strong. Hakushu 25 Year Old (白州25年) and Hakushu 18 Year Old Peated Malt (白州18年ピーテッドモルト) each won a double gold, and Kakubin (角瓶), the everyday blend sold in its tortoise-shell bottle since 1937, won a gold medal for the third consecutive year. The spread from a 25-year-old single malt to a highball staple is what the Producer of the Year title rewards: it goes to the one company per category whose range scored best overall.
Why this matters
Awards rarely change what a distillery does, but they do change how a bottle is priced and traded. Yamazaki 25 is the clearest example in Japanese whisky. When Suntory raised its suggested retail prices on April 1, 2024, Yamazaki 25 went from 160,000 yen to 360,000 yen before tax, an increase of 125%, the steepest of the whole revision. The company tied the increases to production costs and to investment in its Yamazaki distillery and Hakushu distillery to expand capacity. A Trophy two years later supports that pricing rather than challenging it, and it gives secondary-market sellers a fresh headline to quote.
The deeper story is about time. The malt in a bottle of Yamazaki 25 sold today was distilled around 2001 or earlier, during the years when Japanese whisky demand was weak and production was cut across the industry. That shortage of old stock is the reason age-statement Japanese whisky became so expensive in the first place, as we explain in why Japanese whisky is so expensive. Suntory’s capacity investments will eventually ease supply of younger expressions, but no investment can create more 25-year-old malt today. A top award for this particular bottle therefore spotlights the one part of the market that will stay tight longest.
It is also worth reading a Trophy for what it is. Competitions judge the samples submitted in a given year, in one category, against that year’s entries. Our guide to reading Japanese whisky awards explains how ISC, IWSC, San Francisco and the World Whiskies Awards differ, and why a seventh straight Producer of the Year title says as much about Suntory’s depth of stock as any single medal.
For readers outside Japan
Yamazaki 25 is sold outside Japan, but only in very small allocations through Suntory’s international distribution, usually to specialist retailers who sell it by ballot, by invitation or at prices well above the Japanese list price. In practice, many bottles change hands at auction. If you are tempted, our Japanese whisky auction guide covers fees, shipping and how hammer prices relate to retail, and our checklist on how to spot fake Japanese whisky is essential reading at this price level. Expect award headlines to push asking prices up in the short term.
If you simply want to understand the Yamazaki house style, there are far cheaper routes. The 12-year-old is distributed widely in the US, UK, Canada and Australia; see our Yamazaki 12 review, and our guides to buying Japanese whisky in the US and in the UK for retailers that stock it. Visitors to Japan can taste Yamazaki at the source; our guide to visiting the Yamazaki distillery covers reservations, though what is poured by the glass varies and older expressions are never guaranteed.
Source: PR TIMES / Suntory Holdings (Japanese)