Yamazaki 55 Year

The oldest whisky produced to date by Suntory, the Yamazaki 55 year old represents the absolute pinnacle of rare whisky. Crafted from two unique styles of Yamazaki, one distilled in 1960 and matured in Mizunara casks as well as a 1964 vintage matured in white oak casks, it was delicately blended and bottled in 2020. The bottle itself is a work of art, encased in a crystal bottle adorned with gold dust and lacquer, wrapped in handmade washi paper, and presented in a bespoke Mizunara wood box. Yamazaki was the first whisky distillery in Japan, founded in 1924 by Shinjiro Torri’s firm Kotobukiya under the helm of Masataka Taketsuru, who had just returned from Scotland after a three year trip learning how to make whisky. Torri signed Taketsuru to a 10 year contract and tasked him with production of a Japanese made whisky. It would take till 1929 before Suntory white label would be released, ultimately failing due to its peated style. The pair would split at the end of Taketsuru’s contract, but Yamazaki would ultimately prosper once the unpeated Kakubin was released. For much of the 20th century Japanese whisky was relegated to cheap blended products, with Yamazaki making grain and malt whisky for its blends as well as likely using cheap imported Scotch whisky. But in 1984 the firm pivoted, and began releasing Yamazaki as a pure malt whisky. This was risky as the wider whisky market was still almost entirely drinking blended whiskies, but Suntory wanted to differentiate. They launched Hibiki in 1989 to satisfy the blended market and even launched an 18 year old and 25 year old Yamazaki malt whisky as the 1990s ticked along. As the turn of the millennium crept around Japanese whisky was winning more and more awards. And by the 2010s demand for the spirit had pivoted and age stated expressions of Japanese whisky were rapidly being discontinued. Yamazaki especially suffered and the 18 has become a super premium offering in the last decade. Old stocks of this esteemed distillery are few and far between, and those that do survive are now amongst the most sought after bottles in the world. The use of Mizunara oak came out of necessity as imported American white oak became difficult to acquire post WWII. The Japanese whisky makers turned to local oak to try and satisfy their need for casks. Mizunara is notoriously difficult to work with, often being used instead for furniture. These endemic Japanese trees need 200 years on average to meet requirement for cask making and so are both expensive and highly allocated. Despite this difficulty the Japanese makers at Suntory found the oak to impart a wholly unique flavour, often drawing parallels to notes of coconut and sandalwood. Suntory continued the use of these precious oak casks and they have been a core component of what makes Yamazaki single malt so special.