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Chris Dwyer

If you’ve ever sipped on a refreshing Ribena or Orangina, enjoyed a glass of Chateau Lagrange, or maybe had a pick-me-up with a Boss coffee, then you have the Japanese company Suntory to thank.
The drinks giant was founded in Osaka in 1899 and today is a global leader, with its 2022 annual revenue at over US$22 billion.
The company’s founder, a former drugstore worker called Shinjiro Torii, always dreamed big, but never more so than when it came to building another of the brand’s iconic products: whisky.
“I have a dream to create a truly Japanese whisky that one day would surpass the quality levels of Western spirits,” he once said.

Exactly a century after he opened the Yamazaki distillery in 1923, in a verdant valley just outside Kyoto, between the majestic Mount Tennozan and Mount Otokoyama, many experts and home drinkers alike agree that his goal has been reached, driven in part by the philosophy of monozukuri – the relentless pursuit for quality production.
It’s certainly a view borne out in the huge prices commanded by bottles of its vintage Yamazaki single malt – if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on one, that is.
In 2018, a 50-year-old Yamazaki single malt that was only released in 2005 sold for a cool HK$2.3 million (about US$300,000). But even if you’re after a bottle for your home drinks cabinet, be prepared to pay a minimum of US$700 for its 10-year-old.
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Visiting the Yamazaki Distillery, located an idyllic 30-minute drive southwest of Kyoto, goes some way to understanding why it – and Japanese whisky more broadly – has become so sought-after.
Torii chose to open the distillery in a location famous for being home to some of Japan’s purest waters. In fact, the water is so pure that the man credited with popularising the Japanese tradition of tea ceremonies in the 16th century, Sen no Rikyu, used local water in a teahouse that still stands in the nearby Myokian temple.
Torii had started out trying to make wine but realised that the fog caused by the confluence of the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers made for the perfect moist, humid environment for cask-ageing whisky.

His self-proclaimed mission was to make a Japanese whisky “that suits the delicate palate of Japanese people”.
Multiple specialists and scholars told him that crafting whisky could only happen in Scotland or Ireland, but he held on to his conviction that Yamazaki’s pristine natural environment could also provide the ideal terroir.
Crafting whisky is a famously long and labour-intensive process. At the Yamazaki Distillery, it starts with barley imported from Scotland that is ground and mashed before being fermented in both wooden and stainless-steel vessels known as washbacks.

Next it is distilled in vast copper stills from Scotland and Japan, then finally aged, the critical piece in the whisky puzzle, as the different casks impart both flavour and colour.
When you walk into the distillery’s vast ageing room, which houses around 2,000 casks, the first thing you notice is the temperature control – namely that there isn’t any. The room’s conditions exactly reflect the environment in the forest-clad hills just outside, whether hot or cold.
There are former sherry casks – some with the name of the Spanish province of Cádiz still imprinted on them – which have been critical in ageing the highly collectible Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask, giving its sublime dark amber colour and tasting notes of sun-dried tomato, clove, chocolate and hazelnuts.

When I ask how many bottles they get from each cask, I’m told with a smile: “Trade secret.”
Given that just one bottle of Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask can set you back US$8,000 — the value surrounding us is eye-watering.
There are also rows upon rows of huge casks that once housed Bordeaux wine and bourbon whisky – Suntory also own bourbon brands including Maker’s Mark and Jim Beam – while casks made from 250-year-old Japanese Mizunara oak trees give its Hibiki whisky its own unique vanilla aroma before sandalwood, pineapple and apple dance on the palate.
Of course, I want to increase supply, but our quality is more critical
Masaki Morimoto, Asia-Pacific president of Suntory’s spirits arm
Tours of the Yamazaki distillery and its sister Hakushu distillery west of Tokyo are almost as sought-after as their whiskies.
The bad news is that both are now closed until autumn 2023 for multimillion-dollar enhancements, but the good news is that both will offer visitors the chance to try some of their products at the end of a visit – and yes, there is a gift shop, albeit with strict purchase quotas per customer.

In a boardroom high above Tokyo at Suntory’s global headquarters, I ask Masaki Morimoto, the genial Asia-Pacific president of Suntory’s spirits arm, whether Torii’s original vision to create a whisky surpassing Western spirits has now been realised.
He pauses, contemplating, before answering.
“Not quite yet, we still have room to improve,” he says. “We are on track, always looking towards the next things.”

It’s a modest response for a family of whiskies that has now won pretty much every award going.
There was gold at the International Spirits Challenge in 2003 for the Yamazaki 12 Years Old, while whisky industry icon Jim Murray of The Whisky Bible – the self-proclaimed “world’s leading whisky guide” – awarded the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 his “World Whisky of the Year” award, in 2015. Until then, Scottish single malts had always won.
Morimoto also discusses the unique problems created by the huge over-demand for single malts in Suntory’s spirits portfolio.
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“The challenges are limitations with supply of our brands, but we have to maintain our quality and policy,” he says.
“Of course, I want to increase supply, but our quality is more critical,” he adds. “Ideally I want consumers to enjoy our whisky by themselves, but I’m a bit concerned about investment in whisky products. Whisky is not a money generator. We make whisky to be enjoyed. The investment is a fact of the situation.”
I finish by asking what he likes to drink at home after a long day at work, and he breaks out into a broad smile.
“A highball with Yamazaki or Hakushu 18-years-old.”

His choice of a highball mixes whisky with carbonated water, decreasing the alcohol content and making the flavour and character more pronounced. It has become, especially in the last decade or so, one of the most popular ways to enjoy whisky, especially among a new, younger generation of drinkers.
Suntory-branded highball bars are located all over Japan, and canned versions of its signature cocktail can even be bought from vending machines.
Lorenzo Antinori, an award-winning Hong Kong-based mixologist and food and drinks consultant, is very well versed in Japanese whisky. He says his first whisky highball – made in a Japanese bar – had a huge impact on his drinking journey.
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“To me, the whisky highball is not just necessarily a cocktail, per se, it’s very much a ritual, something that involves precision and technique. And the Japanese, they really took it to the next level,” he says.
“It is definitely a great expression of whisky drinking. Aside from drinking it neat, the best way to really unfold all the flavours and the complexity of a whisky is with good-quality carbonated water and great-quality ice. Two parts water to one part whisky – I like mine with a little lemon twist.”
With the buzzing bars of Hong Kong’s SoHo, Wan Chai and Tsim Sha Tsui areas increasingly filled with highball drinkers, the future for the next 100 years of Japanese whisky looks especially rosy, underlining Shinjiro Torii’s optimistic conviction from back in 1923.


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How Japanese whisky giant Suntory’s Yamazaki single malt became so coveted, and the story behind the drinks company’s famous 100-year-old distillery

A bottle of Yamazaki 25-year-old single malt whisky, made by the Japanese drinks company Suntory. Photo: Suntory

Various bottles of Suntory whisky for sale at a supermarket in Tokyo. Photo: Getty Images

Suntory’s Yamazaki Distillery is located between two picturesque mountains. Photo: Suntory

A tester takes a whisky sample at the Yamazaki Distillery. Photo: Suntory

The Yamazaki Distillery’s ageing room is not temperature controlled, and relies on the cycles of nature. Photo: Suntory

Yamazaki whiskies have won many awards around the world. Photo: Suntory

Masaki Morimoto, the Asia-Pacific president of Suntory’s spirits arm. Photo: Suntory

Stills at the Yamazaki Distillery. Photo: Suntory

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Watsons (pictured here in 1988) went from an eye clinic in Guangdong to Asia’s biggest retail pharmacy. Photo: Yu Chung-yin/SCMP

Canton Dispensary in Shamian, Guangdong, China. Photo: Author’s Image Bank

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Yamazaki is an award-winning Japanese whisky whose international popularity has soared in the last decade. Photo: Shutterstock

Lifestyle

Food & Drink

Suntory started making whisky 100 years ago and now vintage bottles of its Yamazaki single malt command huge prices – if you can get your hands on one
Tours of the Yamazaki distillery and its sister Hakushu distillery west of Tokyo are almost as sought-after as their whiskies


Japanese drinks company Suntory started making whisky 100 years ago and now vintage bottles of its Yamazaki single malt command huge prices – if you can get your hands on one.


Stories behind top Asian brands

Wine and Spirits

Japan

History