All figures taken from Whiskyauction.com
Bottling’s from any given decade chosen at random, though other bottling’s were viewed and the below trends seemed to hold true.
Bottling                                       Auction Date                  Price in Euro’s
Karuizawa 1967 Cask 6426      09/2011                           865
“                                      “           01/2012                           850
“                                      “           04/2012                         1205
”                                      ”          11/2012                          1330
Karuizawa 1968 Cask 6955      02/2011                           510
”                                      ”          11/2011                            456
”                                      ”           04/2012                           652
”                                      ”          11/2012                            621
Karuizawa 1973 Cask 6249      03/2011                           290
‘’                                     ‘’           08/2011                           276
‘’                                     ‘’           01/2012                           370
‘’                                     ‘’           09/2012                           365
Karuizawa 1976 Noh # 6719     02/2011                           400
”                                     ”            07/2011                           393
‘’                                     ‘’           12/2011                           405
‘’                                     ‘’           07/2012                           426
Karuizawa 1977 Noh # 7026     02/2011                           555
‘’                                     ‘’           07/2011                           500
‘’                                     ‘’           01/2012                           555
‘’                                     ‘’           12/2012                           535
Karuizawa 1982 Cask 2746      03/2011                           241
‘’                                     ‘’          12/2011                            222
‘’                                     ‘’           04/2012                           236
‘’                                     ‘’          12/2012                            290
Karuizawa 1985 Cask 7017      03/2011                           238
”                                     ”           06/2012                           203
”                                     ”           07/2012                           225
Karuizawa 1992 Cask 3434     03/2011                           135
”                                     ”           08/2011                           134
”                                     ”           05/2012                           200
”                                     ”           10/2012                           174
Karuizawa 1994 Noh # 270      04/2011                           145
‘’                                     ‘’          11/2011                            160
‘’                                     ‘’          06/2012                            160
‘’                                     ‘’          12/2012                            260
Karuizawa 1995 Noh # 5039    06/2011                            261
‘’                                     ‘’           09/2011                           355
‘’                                     ‘’           05/2012                           268
‘’                                     ‘’           07/2012                           180
My conclusions:
Ok, so it’s early days for the Japanese whisky collectors market, but so far. Most bottling’s receive the greatest jump in price after the batch has sold out at retail and then the first time sold at auction, often doubling in price in a matter of months. If purchased in Japan where the retail price is considerably lower, it can be triple. That in general, Noh or other fancy labeled bottling’s jump the highest from retail price to auction price whether the liquid in the bottle is superior or not. That once the initial jump in price is made from retail to auction, that the price often remains relatively static, with some small/medium percentage gains from time to time depending on the bottling. Bottling’s such as the 1967 are the exception to this rather than the rule. That there are some that have dropped in auction price such as the 1995 listed, though these are also exceptions. Still, for those with patience relative ‘bargains’ can still be had. It would also seem that as the initial retail price of bottling’s from the ‘70s are now so high, there are relatively little if any gains when these are sold at auction, at least initially. Karuizawa is by far the most heavily listed Japanese whisky distillery on this auction site. Your best bet is to pull the trigger as soon as you see a new retail release. Bottling’s from the ‘80s and ‘90s would now seem the best bet for short term price gains if your into whisky investing, and although speculating about the future of whisky prices is purely speculative, you’d be hard pressed to bet against prices of these ultimately rising once all the Karuizawa casks have been bottled.

Ah Kirin. A Pariah amongst Japanese companies in the eyes of many whisky enthusiasts. Yep, the company that owned and stopped production at Karuizawa. Kirin, the company that would not sell that distillery to certain interested parties. So what else do we know about Kirin? They make whisky, have been doing so for awhile, and you know what…..they make some pretty good stuff! Without going into a full history, there was a time up until 2002 where Kirin was in partnership with Seagram. This often meant that Kirin whiskies where blended with whiskies from other countries. Photo below.
Kirin’s purely Japanese production does have a unique house style amongst Japanese whisky produces. You will get the idea if you look at a few of the following reviews. Kirin 20th Anniversary Pure Malt, Kirin Crescent Blend, Kirin Evermore 2002. I once described this taste to an whisky acquaintance in the US and he wrote that it sounded somewhat like bourbon with a high rye content. As for myself, I wouldn’t mistake it for anything but whisky but I got the comparison. What I have found is that the higher the percentage of ‘outside whisky’ used in Kirin’s blends, the less the house style shines through so an easy way to tell. The Kirin Single Malt 18YO holds it’s own against the same age bottling’s from Yamazaki and Hakushu and the aforementioned 20th Anniversary Pure Malt is one of my favorite Japanese whiskies.
So in summary, these Kirin whiskies are well worth trying in my opinion.

Truth be told I haven’t tasted a lot of down right awful whiskies whether Japanese or Scottish. Same may be bland, extremely average, or I may not like the style personally, but truly horrible, thankfully not many. I’m especially grateful for this as, like most whisky punters, I’m putting my hand in my own pocket to pay for this stuff.
On a few occasions however I’ve come across some Japanese whisky that has been downright nasty. So to borrow from part of the title of one of my all time favorite movies, here is Japanese whisky, The Bad and The Ugly.

Nikka De Ta Blend: For those that like a little whisky with their sulphur.
Kirin Robert Brown Deluxe Blend: Cheap to buy and for good reason, it tastes like it.
Karuizawa Vintage Cask 1987 15 #2114 60.2%: Perfume, kero, some kind of boiled meat, burning rubber…. and that’s the good part.
Mars Malt Gallery SC 1988 #0565-107 Sherry Butt 58%: Pour some Old Spice Cologne or similar into a whisky glass then drink. Same effect.
Suntory Yamazaki Gold Sherry Cask from the 70’s 42%: Warning! Do not try this at home folks…..or anywhere else!
Kirin Dunbar Pure Malt: Just plain weird. Possible uses, glueing together your next Airfix model kit ‘cuz that’s what it smells/tastes like.

Thought this would be interesting to post on. A cask strength single malt whisky from the Yamazaki distillery, the longest established commercial production whisky distillery in Japan and a cask strength, single cask, single malt from the newest ‘proper’ commercial whisky distillery in Asia, Kavalan. The Yamazaki matured in a sherry cask, the Kavalan a wine cask. Both with no age statement, though the Kavalan is about 4 years old. Check out the outcome below!

Some readers will be familiar with this topic possibly through debate on a whisky forum or posts from a blog etc. Here I throw my 2 cents worth in. In an article posted on The Whisky Exchange Website last year, it was ‘observed’ by the writer that there were about 200 casks of Karuizawa stored in a warehouse at the Chichibu distillery. It was certainly hinted at quite strongly by the writer, that, this was all that was left over of the remaining stock after Karuizawa was closed and it was this number that was purchased by Number One Drinks Company, not withstanding they may have bottled a few casks in the interim.
So let’s go with that number for now. Since that article was written, 77 casks were vatted for the Spirit of Asama Bottling’s, seriously, how did that name ever make it onto a whisky label, but I digress. That leaves 123 casks. In the last 12 months there was also 3 multi-cask bottling’s that I can recall, one a vatting of 4 casks, the others contained vattings of 2 casks each. Now we have 115 casks of Karuizawa. By my calculations there has been at least 20 other single cask bottling’s released for the UK, Europe, Taiwan and Japan since the article. Don’t believe me? Japan alone has had at least seven single casks of Karuizawa bottled for their market alone since that time and that is not including the multi-cask bottling’s I have mentioned. Down to around 95 casks.
I know that there is already 4 single casks to be released this year, 2 for the US, one for Japan and the oldest Karuizawa bottling. Now 91 and counting. So what if the current yearly rate of bottling continues unabated? We are talking about no more Karuizawa casks left to be bottled after 5 years from now. The other thing to be considered is, are all the remaining Karuizawa good enough to be bottled as singles? If not, that would mean more multi-casks diminishing the remaining stocks even faster. Consider this also, can a liquor company survive on only bottling 5 casks a year? That would obviously slow down that rate of decline. Maybe if you can sell them for $250,000 a cask profit. Or, maybe if your other business interests now become your major earner and bottling Karuizawa a side show? Maybe more bottling’s of Hanyu/Chichibu that Number One Drinks also distributes to pick up the slack? We will certainly get a better idea over the next 12-18 months. In the meanwhile, millionaire whisky collectors get your cheque books ready, it’s going to be an expensive ride. The majority of us will have to be content just to sit back and watch.

UPDATE 15/3/2012: Please read TimF from TWE’s comment re the Asama bottling’s.

Ah Miyagikyo, a name familiar with many Japanese whisky enthusiasts but a mystery for many of us at the same time. Why, because we(outside of Japan), don’t seem to try/buy a lot of it. I have been a member of a couple of the largest English language whisky forums for a number of years and I hardly remember seeing on the ‘What Are You Drinking/Buying’ threads anyone buying/trying Miyagikyo. Ok, they are sold outside of Japan so someone is buying them but they are hardly mentioned compared to Yoichi, Yamazaki, Hakushu, Hanyu and Karuizawa. That said, there may be a large following in Japan but I have no idea of sales volumes.
So where does Miyagikyo fit into my scheme of things. Firstly there is the standard range, no age statement, 10, 12 and 15YO. Apart from the NAS, a feisty youngster, I find the others too delicate for my tastes. This is not to say they are not refined spirits. More that the ultra delicate style is not to my taste. Certainly they conform to the early mantra of Shinjiro Torii the founder of Suntory, that whisky should be compatible with Japanese food(more on that late when I post on Yamazaki). I cannot say this is deliberate on behalf of the folks at Miyagikyo but, I can see Miyagikyo being sipped as an accompaniment to sushi, teppanyaki or yakatori and performing that task very well. I however, like many other whisky enthusiasts in the west, drink whisky as a stand alone experience.
So for myself, Miyagikyo works best when it is bottled as cask strength. The combination of the subtlety of the Miyagikyo style ramped up to the nth degree can create some fascinating contrasts. In the end, nothing is set in stone and I am looking forward to trying more bottling’s of Miyagikyo in the future so my experiences follow suit.

I’ve been chatting with some fellow Japanese whisky enthusiasts of late and realized, well confirmed, how under represented the Yoichi distillery is on these pages. This is not a reflection of a dislike of Yoichi’s product. On the contrary, I rate Yoichi’s standard product, No Age Statement through to 20 year, the best of the Japanese Distilleries. In fact, I would put Yoichi’s ‘standard’ range up against any distillery from anywhere in the world for both quality and consistency.

So, why not more tasting notes on The Japanese Whisky Review for Yoichi? Well, over the years I will buy many different batches of the ‘standards’, at least the NAS, 10, 12 and 15 year olds all of which I can afford(the 20 being double the cost of the 15 in Japan). But, the single cask stuff from Yoichi is, for a similar age, mostly more expensive than the other Japanese distilleries bar Karuizawa. As someone who purchases 99.9% of the whisky’s reviewed on this website, cost is just as much of a consideration as it is for 99.9% of the readers. Here’s an example. The oldest version of latest the Ichiro’s Card series is 22 years old and costs about 13500 Yen in Japan. A Yoichi of similar age is around 19000 Yen in Japan. Sometimes this is hard to justify and as a man of limited means and an observant partner, it’s more often than not about the means and the justification.

Above and beyond that, I will be posting some new notes on Yoichi whisky soon. Also, I will be adding some more personal reflections on the other major Japanese whisky distilleries in the near future.