Aichi Prefecture-based Fujikei Kyoi Co. Ltd. has announced the release of Single Malt Whisky White Oak Akashi Sake Cask, a 3-year whisky that spends all of its time maturing in American white oak ex-sake casks. You are unlikely to find this one available online in […]

Another new Japanese gin comes out today: 9148 recipe #3891 from Sapporo’s Benizakura Distillery. It’s a release designed to highlight the autumn foliage of Japan’s northernmost prefecture. The Benizakura Distillery makes pretty awesome gin! They were shutdown for a few days following the power outages […]

On October 30, 2018, the Japan’s so-called “Wine Law” goes into effect. This law was introduced to combat the practice of Japanese wineries importing wine from overseas, bottling it in Japan, and labeling it as “domestic wine.” Ring any bells? It should for any regular […]

On October 1, Mars Whisky released the Single Malt Komagatake Limited Edition 2018. Suntory may have failed to release the Yamazaki Limited Edition 2018, so here’s Mars Whisky to wear those pants instead. Limited to 10,000 bottles, it’s at 48% abv. This new Limited Edition […]

Suntory is back with their annual Zodiac bottlings, and 2019 is the Year of the Boar. 2018’s Year of the Dog bottles were really popular, at least according to the pageviews on this site! The Suntory Whisky Royal is a ceramic boar, 600ml at 43% […]

Though we’ve already known about it for nearly half a year now, Beam Suntory has officially announced the US release of Haku Vodka. A 750ml bottle will go for $27.99 according to Kyodo News, putting it around the same US price point of Suntory’s Roku […]

As Japanese whisky makers enjoy their time in the worldwide spotlight, more and more people are waking up to the reality that Japanese consumers may also know a thing or two about the ways to drink Japanese whisky. Of course there’s the izakaya staple whisky […]

Someone called this latest release in Mars Whisky’s Lucky Cat series, “May”, a stealth release. I couldn’t agree more. As of this writing, it’s still not on Hombo Shuzo’s homepage, despite going on sale already. And the whole “going on sale” part was the only […]

Two guest reviews by David Tsujimoto of Aloha Whisky in one week! This time he’s back with his review of the new Yoichi and Miyagikyo Manzanilla Wood Finish releases, direct from Nikka’s Miyagikyo Distillery near Sendai. As we learned last week, Nikka Whisky is repeating […]

JR East Japan Hotels Group held their first-ever Craft Cocktail Competition this past Monday, September 24. The event was a showdown of 13 different bartenders assembled from various Metropolitan Hotel properties, where each developed a unique cocktail and offered it to both judges and event […]