Yamazaki 12 Year Old Single Malt Whisky

The 100% malted barley used to make the Yamazaki 12 Years Old Single Malt Whisky is ground, mashed, and fermented using water from Mount Tenno’s foothills. Sen No Rikyu, the renowned tea master of Japan, is reported to have preferred the water. Suntory’s copper-pot stills, the first of their kind outside of Scotland, are used to distill the wash after the barley has fermented. The whisky is then aged in casks made of three different types of wood: American, Spanish, and Japanese oak. The Japanese oak gives the whisky an Asian twist.

“This is all done by hand — the traditional way,” Yamazaki distillery manager Osamu Abe says of the cooperage that is happening there. “We refer to this as yagura, or handicraft. You have to hear and see how they are manufactured. We say “use all five senses” in Japan. Naturally, we pick up knowledge from others, but our own intuition is crucial. The whisky is brought to proof before being bottled after 12 years of age in Japan’s special environment, where the oak and whisky interact due to the country’s frequent temperature and humidity variations.

The Yamazaki single malt Japanese whisky aged 12 years received 92 points from the Beverage Testing Institute and won the Double Gold Medal in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2009 and 2013.

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yamazaki-12 year​ Notes on Tasting

It has a golden honey color and a flowery scent with hints of fruit and spice. The whisky is rich and thick, with a lengthy and deep aftertaste that is accompanied by aromas of pepper, buttered toast, toffee, and dried stone fruits.

Concerning Yamazaki

Shinjiro Torii established a wine import and sales business in Osaka, Japan, in February 1899. Torii started making his own sweet grape wine, Akadama Port Wine, within ten years, and it quickly gained national acclaim. Torri, who had always been captivated by whisky, made the decision to grow his company in 1923 and started building the Yamazaki Distillery, Japan’s first whisky distillery Yamazaki whiskey 12 years.

Torii envisioned a distinctively Japanese approach to whisky, despite being influenced by traditional Scottish distilleries. Torii chose a location for his distillery that offered a climate and topography that were entirely different from those of Scotland. Located at the meeting point of the Katsura, Uji, and Kizu rivers, Yamazaki Distillery is tucked away on the outskirts of Kyoto and offers the warm, humid conditions necessary for whisky production and maturing.

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Concerning Japanese Whisky