Probably the most compelling cause for exploring Japanese whisky is the artistry of its blenders, as a result of in lots of circumstances—together with with single malts—Japanese whiskies are all in regards to the stability of a number of elements. Right here’s a have a look at 4 grasp blenders from Japan’s most outstanding distilleries, exploring the inspiration and creativity of their craft.
Ichiro Akuto
Founder and Chief Blender, Enterprise Whisky (Chichibu)
Each Japanese whisky collector is aware of the Ichiro’s Malt Card Collection of Hanyu bottlings, as these rarities can fetch tens of hundreds of {dollars} at public sale. Chichibu founder Ichiro Akuto is the grandson of Hanyu Distillery’s founder Isouji Akuto. Ichiro first made his approach as a whisky entrepreneur by bottling the final of Hanyu’s barrels after its closure in 2000. He launched Chichibu in 2004 and fired up the distillery in 2008, delighting followers of the Card Collection releases. Ichiro is famend for his dedication to high quality at Chichibu. He put in mizunara washbacks, developed an on-site cooperage and flooring maltings, and sources Japanese barley. He attends the Hokkaido timber auctions to bid in opposition to furnishings makers and rival distillers to safe provides of the very best quality logs of tight-grained mizunara oak. In 2019, Ichiro opened the bigger Chichibu 2 facility, simply down the street from Chichibu 1, and he now plans to construct his personal grain distillery.
Shinji Fukuyo
Chief Blender, Home of Suntory, whose distilleries in Japan are Yamazaki and Hakushu for malt whisky, and Chita for grain whisky
Throughout his 40-year profession with Home of Suntory, Shinji Fukuyo, the fifth chief blender within the firm’s historical past, has labored on such famend expressions because the Yamazaki 1984 and Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013, and the very restricted Yamazaki 55 yr previous, launched in 2021. Fukuyo turned chief blender in 2009, and alongside the way in which he spent 4 years coaching in Scotland, adopted by stints at Suntory’s Hakushu and Yamazaki Distilleries. Fukuyo is answerable for whisky high quality—together with each innovation, whether or not a brand new Hibiki mix or the only malt expressions within the 2024 Tsukuriwake Collection. Throughout the Suntory World Spirits household, Fukuyo has collaborated internationally on new releases like Legent (with Beam grasp distiller Fred Noe) and Ardray (with Suntory scotch grasp blender Calum Fraser). Fukuyo’s talent lies in delivering advanced blends using the total vary of whisky kinds from the corporate’s distilleries, whereas staying true to a lineage of Suntory grasp blenders.
Hiromi Ozaki
Chief Blender, Nikka Whisky, whose major whisky distilleries in Japan are Yoichi and Miyagikyo. The corporate owns 4 different distilleries that focus primarily on different spirits.
A microbiologist by coaching, Hiromi Ozaki joined Nikka in 1988, beginning in analysis and improvement. On his profession path at Nikka he gained expertise in just about all aspects of whisky making together with maturation, mixing, grains, and yeasts. All of that led him to the chief blender’s function in 2021. Ozaki is the seventh chief blender in a line that started with Masataka Taketsuru, the corporate’s founder. He oversees the making of many nice expressions, together with Nikka’s blends, Nikka Coffey Grain, and Miyagikyo and Yoichi single malts, amongst many others. A current tour de pressure was The Nikka 9 Many years mix, comprised of whiskies from every of the previous 90 years. Ozaki additionally produced the restricted version Nikka Discovery Collection, a few of which drew on experiments from earlier in his profession, like Miyagikyo Fragrant Yeast, the place Ozaki chosen whiskies aged greater than 20 years from his personal fermentation trials.
Jota Tanaka
Grasp Blender, Fuji Gotemba Distillery
Jota Tanaka has maybe had probably the most fascinating profession of any Japanese whisky maker. He labored as a winemaker in Napa Valley within the early ’90s earlier than shifting to brown spirits, spending seven years at 4 Roses Distillery previous to returning to Japan. In 2010, Tanaka turned grasp blender at Fuji Gotemba, sister distillery to 4 Roses. Given the instruments at his disposal—a malt whisky distillery and a flexible grain distillery producing kinds present in bourbon, scotch, and Canadian whisky—Tanaka has loads of scope to create taste. Fuji Single Grain showcases his experience in mixing Japanese grain whiskies and the distillery’s intensive grain capabilities to create advanced grain whiskies total. Tanaka created almost 100 check blends earlier than finalizing the Fuji fiftieth Anniversary Single Malt, mixing whisky from the inaugural distillation runs in 1973 with malts from each decade from the Nineteen Seventies to the 2010s. Fuji made its U.S. debut in 2021. —Jonny McCormick
New Names to Watch
In a state of affairs not dissimilar to what occurred within the U.S. and Eire, the revival of whisky’s fortunes in Japan has introduced forth an array of unbiased distillers. Ichiro Akuto of Chichibu, the granddaddy of this motion, is the largest star amongst them, however listed here are some smaller distillers whose whiskies are both extremely anticipated or have already been creating pleasure.
Ian Chang
Komoro Distillery
Former grasp distiller at Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan, Ian Chang moved to Japan in 2020 and fashioned Karuizawa Distillers Inc. with businessman Koji Shimaoka. The partnership opened the strikingly fashionable Komoro Distillery in 2023. This single malt facility is constructed at a a lot greater altitude than Kavalan, which ought to end in slower maturation instances. Given Chang’s prowess in cask utilization with sherry, bourbon, port, wine, and others, Japanese whisky followers are eagerly awaiting the primary launch, anticipated no sooner than 2026.
Yoshitsugu Komasa
Kanosuke Distillery
This grasp blender can also be president of Komasa Jyozo, a family-run shochu maker based in 1883. Kanosuke Distillery opened in 2017 specializing in malt, but it surely additionally makes grain whisky on the close by Hioki Distillery. Komasa works with peated and unpeated malt, double distilling the only malt spirit, however various which two of his three different-shaped copper pot stills he makes use of, thus creating a wide range of spirits with totally different traits. His signature fashion makes use of Mellowed Kozuru casks, from its cask-aged shochu model launched in 1957.
Tatsuro Kusano
Mars Tsunuki Distillery
Kusano joined Mars Distilleries’ proprietor Hombo Shuzo in 2013 and rapidly turned concerned in constructing Mars Tsunuki, its second distillery on the island of Kyushu. Being in cost at Mars Tsunuki means he has a radical information of the spirit’s character relating to choosing every year’s annual launch, whether or not it’s peated or unpeated. He directs maturation utilizing Mars’s array of cask sorts for on-site storage in Kyushu, on the mountain distillery campus of Mars Shinshu, or Mars’s Yakushima Getting older Cellar, which is on a subtropical island.
Taiko Nakamura
Shizuoka Distillery
Shizuoka was based by Taiko Nakamura in 2016, after a go to to Islay’s Kilchoman in 2012 impressed him to construct his personal distillery. Shizuoka has an uncommon setup that features Japanese cedar washbacks, a former Karuizawa wash nonetheless, and a wood-burning, direct-fired wash nonetheless. Nakamura has launched contrasting bottlings from these two totally different wash stills, evaluating imported malt and Japanese malt. The distillery additionally produces some whiskies which are 100% created from Japanese barley. To date releases have been small, such because the First Version Duo Set which is available in two 200 ml bottles.
