Mars, perhaps the third largest whisky distiller in Japan, has its history in Kagoshima as a Japanese shochu maker, Hombo Shuzo (shuzo = sake brewery/shochu distillery). Hombo Shuzo essentially restarted whisky-making operations in Nagano with the Shinshu distillery. To help restart, their pot stills from […]

2018 definitely has not been a banner year for Japanese whisky. Here in Tokyo it’s only gotten more and more difficult to find age-statement Japanese whisky at bars, let alone buy a bottle for a decent price. While we are watching several new distilleries this year, it’s going […]

Hombo Shuzo’s Shinshu Distillery is breaking up some more decades-old casks for another Komagatake release. This one is the “Single Malt Komagatake Aged 27 Years.” There have been a couple other whiskies out of Shinshu with the same age statement, and they look to be […]

Hombo Shuzo’s first Mars Whisky release of 2018 will be Single Malt Komagatake Double Cellars Bottled in 2018. The “Double Cellars” here refers to the cellars of both the Mars Shinshu Distillery and the Mars Tsunuki Distillery — this one is a vatting of whiskies […]

The latest release from Mars Whisky is upon us, Single Malt Komagatake Yakushima Aging. As the name indicates it’s aged on the small island of Yakushima, a UNESCO World Heritage site and rainforest off the coast of Kyushu. Even though it’s only aged 3 years […]

Those of you who were lucky enough and loaded enough to get in on Shinanoya’s 10th Anniversary bottling of “Single Malt Komagatake [1988] 29yo for Shinanoya” should have their bottles shipped today. These went for a cool 95,040 yen each. Even so, I watched them […]

Mars Distillery has just announced the third iteration in their “Nature of Shinshu” series, dubbed Shinanotanpopo (Shinano Dandelion). This latest release, of which only 11,000 bottles will be available, is a vatting of mostly new-cask American white oak bourbon barrel aged 2014 malt and 20+ […]