It’s time to crack open a can (of whiskey, that is)
market watch
March 5, 2021 | by charles passy
In recent years, canned beverages have acquired a certain cachet. Craft beer makers have embraced the packaging. And beverage brands are heavily promoting canned cocktails, to say nothing of hard seltzer.
What could be next? Whiskey in a can, of course.
What’s New in Japanese Whisky
inside hook
march 5, 2021 | by kirk miller
What we’re drinking: Two Stacks Irish Whiskey, both in a can (more on that in a minute) and at cask strength in a bottle.
What’s New in Japanese Whisky
departures
January 25, 2021 | by jonah flicker
Classic bottles may be in short supply, but there are plenty of new whiskies to fill that void.
We Asked Bartenders For Their Favorite Whiskeys Under $100
uproxx
January, 2021 | by christopher osburn
I’m really liking Mars IWAI Japanese Whisky right now. I usually drink specific spirits (neat of course) for an extended period of time until I’m bored of them. Right now, I am drinking calvados and Mars IWAI. It’s a Japanese whisky whose mash bill is inspired by bourbon. It’s definitely one of my first recommendations for inquiring guests at the bar. On top of that, it’s well under $100 making it even more appealing.
#19 • Mars Iwai 45
whisky advocate
December, 2020 | by jonny mccormick
This new, higher proof Iwai (pronounced EE-why) was designed for cocktails; however, it’s supple and more than capable as a neat sipper too, with pleasing aromas of honey, ripening pear, barley, exotic woods, and citrus. The palate of honey sweetness, sugar cubes, vanilla, pear, apricot, and spice bows out with honey, breakfast cereal, nougat, and white chocolate. It’s a delicious and unusual whisky from Japan, less aligned with the country’s scotch-like tradition of malts and blends and more similar to bourbon, being made mostly from corn.
Japan’s Mars Distillery Announces Three New Whisky Releases
bar business
December 4, 2020 | by bar business
Mars Distillery, Japan’s highest whisky distillery, is pleased to announce three new releases now available nationwide: IWAI 45 (pronounced “E-Y”) an approachable bourbon-style Japanese whisky that’s lighter in color and great in cocktails; Komagatake 2020, a premium single malt whisky aged for over three years in sherry casks and American White Oak make barrels; and Tsunuki the First, the first release from the southern distillery which benefits from the area’s warm and humid aging climate.
Black Bowmore DB5, Ardbeg 25 Year Old & More New Whisky
whisky advocate
november 27, 2020 | by SUSANNAH SKIVER BARTON
A trio of whiskies from Japan’s Mars Shinshu and Tsukuni distilleries is hitting the U.S.: the widely available Mars Iwai 45 ($35), the limited-edition Mars Komagatake ($169), and the very limited Tsunuki the First ($220), which has just 1,122 bottles.
“A Scotch-Style Whisky With Italian Terroir”
punch
november 12, 2020 | by leslie pariseau
Alba Huerta first encountered Puni when someone aptly gifted her a bottle of the distillery’s “Alba” release. “It didn’t hit me as a Scotch-style whisky,” says the owner of Houston’s Julep, of the marsala and Islay cask-aged malt whisky from northern Italy. “It could have been a number of things.” Curiosity piqued, Huerta went down a rabbit hole and discovered that Puni was the first contemporary whisky distillery in Italy, founded in 2010 by the Ebensperger family.
High On The Mountain
mission wine & spirits
november 9, 2020 | by david driscoll
I caught up with Anand Virmani from Nao Spirits recently, the mastermind behind the Jin Jiji and Hapusa gins that are part of a new craft spirit movement in India. I’ve been obsessed with these babies for weeks on end and I was excited to finally teleconference with Anand from Goa, India where the distillery is located. I’ll go into more of the details later, but there’s an amazing story that I want to tell you right now concerning the source of the Himalayan juniper used in the gins and how Anand once drank what could be a Negroni made at the highest elevation ever.
“Puni Italian Whisky Hits American Shores”
bevvy
november 5, 2020 | by eric twardzik
Puni Italian Malt Whisky made its U.S. landfall this October. Though new to American drinkers, Puni has been operating since 2010 at a family-run distillery in the Italian Alps, where all of its milling, mashing, distilling, and aging occurs.
Naturally, the story of how Puni came to be begins with wine. In the 1990s, family patriarch Albrecht Ebensperger completed all three sommelier courses, and was exposed to the world of whisky in the process. The elder Ebensperger’s enthusiasm soon spread to the rest of the family.
Expand Your Horizons With 7 Great Bottles of “New World Whisky”
inside hook
november 3, 2020 | by kirk miller
So what is “New World Whisky,” and how can we discover the best of the what the new world has to offer? As outlined by Distill Ventures — a Diageo-funded but independently-run drinks accelerator — New World Whisky is “whisky makers from outside of the traditional whisky-producing countries,” which pretty much means brown spirits produced anywhere but Scotland, Ireland, Canada, the USA or Japan.
What to Drink on Election Night... and Beyond
urbandaddy
october 30, 2020 | by HADLEY TOMICKI
Right. You’re “totally leaving this country and moving to Italy” if your candidate doesn’t win. We’ve never heard that before. Anyway, at least Italy now has Puni, its very first malt whisky. So you can have a good dram made with Scottish stills and Alpine water. Not that we won’t miss you.
The Gin Makers Of Goa
money control
october 17, 2020 | by murali menon
The market for gin in India is minuscule. Gin reportedly accounts for just 1 percent of the annual 300 million case spirits market, and liquor industry experts will tell you that over 98 percent of the gin sold here is of the rot-gut variety.
“Whiskey Has Passport, Will Travel”
punch
october 12, 2020 | by aaron goldfarb
What’s changed over the years is that Japanese distillers, and many more outside of the country, are now releasing whiskies that proudly claim to be “world blends.”
For instance, bottles of Ichiro’s Malt & Grain, from the cult-coveted Chichibu Distillery in Japan, were labeled “whisky” in the early aughts; by 2012, it was a “blended whisky,” though smaller letters denoted that Chichibu Distillery’s founder Ichiro Akuto searches the world for the perfect casks to blend with his Hanyu and Chichibu single-malts. By 2017, bottles were labeled “Ichiro’s Malt & Grain World Blended Whisky,” proclaiming its multinational provenance.
A Japanese Whisky Legend Looks Beyond Borders
punch
october 7, 2020 | by marie takahashi
Night falls on Chichibu, a little city of 60,000 two hours by train slightly northwest of Tokyo, nestled between mountains and terraces formed by the Arakawa River as it wends through Saitama Prefecture. For centuries, this place has been synonymous with beverages, thanks to its famed artesian water wells, from which many renowned mountain sakes are brewed. Today, Chichibu is also home to one of the most famous, sought-after whisky distilleries on the planet—a generational success story few could have predicted would drive the international whisky market to new heights—and the man behind it all, Ichiro Akuto, is thirsty.
Japan’s First Foray Into Vermouth
punch
october 5, 2020 | by jessica hernandez
Japan has a unique ability to reinterpret foreign curiosities—croissants, Scotch whisky, Martinis—into perfected gastronomic traditions all its own. Tsutsumi Distillery, which has been producing shochu in Japan for 141 years, has done just that with the category of vermouth. With the launch of its Oka Kura Bermutto, a junmai sake fortified with rice shochu and infused with botanicals indigenous to Japan, Tsutsumi puts the country’s first contemporary vermouth on the map.
The Gin Map Expands
punch
september 15, 2020 | by lizzie munro
A decade ago, “terroir” was reserved for wine—a single word meant to capture its purpose: to taste like someplace. That word has jumped the aisle into spirits, to define the way we understand tequila and mezcal, rum, even whiskey. Before long, distillers began to realize that gin provided the perfect vehicle to translate what a place could taste like, albeit in a different way than tequila or rum might.
No Ordinary Kind of Bitters
punch
march 3, 2020 | by kara newman
After years of celebrating and fetishizing Japan’s bartending techniques, tools, drink styles, bar culture and, of course, its native whisky, U.S. bartenders are primed for its bitters. Enter The Japanese Bitters, the country’s debut bitters brand. Founder Yuki Yamazaki, a veteran bartender, makes the small-batch product at a facility in Tokyo’s Chiba prefecture. (Though some refer to them as “Yamazaki bitters,” they are unrelated to the Japanese whisky brand owned by Beam Suntory.) The first wave of releases focuses on three of Japan’s foundational flavors: yuzu, shiso and the elusive, savory umami.
Five Essential Japanese Gins
punch
february 27, 2020 | by laurel miller
Japanese distilleries have a reputation for crafting shochu and whisky with a near-obsessive attention to detail, but over the past few years, it’s their growing crop of gins that has gained a cult following amongst American bartenders. Native botanicals like sakura (cherry blossom), hinoki (Japanese cypress), gyokuro (a variety of shade-grown green tea), sanshō (a close relative of the Sichuan peppercorn, with the same lip-tingling qualities) and many varieties of indigenous citrus—ingredients often unfamiliar to foreign markets—have set these gins apart from their Western counterparts.
Japan Enters the Bitters Game
punch
january 20, 2020 | by brad thomas parsons
Does the world really need more bitters? With hundreds of brands and obscure flavors on the market, it would seem not. And yet, The Japanese Bitters, Japan’s first domestically produced bitters company, has proven that there remains potential to stand out amongst the dasher tops.
Come to Kyoto for the Sake, Stay for the Gin
conde naste
august 17, 2018 | by mark ellwood
Kyoto is a city that’s easy to visualize, a capsule of Japanese history: dozens of ornate temples in quiet gardens, winding streets lit by paper lanterns, the occasional lingering geisha dressed in a kimono and full makeup. It’s an artisan's city, a legacy of the centuries during which it was home to Japan’s imperial court and the moneyed élite. Kyoto-made crafts are highly prized: sake, kyo-yaki pottery, silk weaving and dyeing, fans and lacquerware, even dolls. (See our pick of its thriving retail scene).
On The Road With dekantā – Kanosuke Distillery
punch
july 6, 2018 | by George Koutsakis
The taxi drives around bends of dark green, up small streets, and past wide fields before I finally arrive at my destination. Outside some decorative cacti stand between rocks and other plants, a handful of casks are racked by the parking, and the sleek, modern Kanosuke distillery blends in with its natural surroundings. Kanosuke is one of the newest and most exciting craft whisky distilleries in Japan. The light wood and beige brick become one with the massive, 50-kilometre strip of beach just metres away, Fukiagehama. Inside the reception area, I peer out across a large strip of grass, to the sea beyond. Joined by president and master distiller, Yoshitsugu Komasa, he tells me that the space is used for events and barbeques. After all, the warm summers in Kagoshima mean spending a lot of time outdoors.