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When it comes to Japanese alcohols, most of the sake comes to people’s minds first, although there is one more concentrated drink that is worth considering when it comes to Japan. I mean, whiskey. Here is a brief history of this!
Japanese whiskey is experiencing a renaissance. Although it has enjoyed uninterrupted popularity in its homeland for the past hundred years, today it is also exposed to global attention.
Japanese whiskey has Scottish roots.Suntory is Japan’s largest whiskey producer and its plant was founded in 1923, including Masataka Taketsuru, who graduated from the University of Glasgow with a degree in chemistry and is also proficient in distillation.
In the 1950s, the growing Japanese middle class was thirsty for the products of Western culture, so the popularity of whiskey also grew in the land of the rising sun. So much so that as early as 1980, distillery products offered a real alternative to drinking after work instead of beer.
And in 2015 what perhaps no one expected happened: the result of a prestigious competition the Suntory product was voted the best in the world. Since then, its popularity has only grown, and today it could sell twice the stock despite the price of pepper. The best products are aged in barrels for at least a decade. Today, you can hardly get a drink that is more than a few years old, and even if you have a bottle on the market, you can only get it for an almost outrageous amount.
A 10-year-old Suntory whiskey recently sold for $ 568 (over $ 170,000), and its 2014 bottled partner is currently tasting $ 9,500. By comparison, a 10-year-old Laphroaig whiskey costs $ 50. By the way, the record is held by Karuizawa, 52, who is worth $ 435,000 (126 million florins).
Fine and light whiskeys, often with notes of sandalwood and incense, are available today mainly in bottles without an “age label”, which means that they leave the factory almost immediately after maturation. However, they also offer a unique quality and flavor that, mixed in a cocktail or consumed alone, promises a special experience. Their taste, according to reviews, is completely different from their American sweet or messy Scottish counterparts.
However, due to high demand and the lack of Japanese legislation, there is a lot of fraud and counterfeiting surrounding the production of Japanese whiskey. Most merchants import cheap whiskey from the US, which they re-label and ship it for uneven profits.
Due to increased production, Japanese whiskey exports have also increased since 2013. In five years, it was around 233 percent, approaching $ 136 million for 2018. The volume of whiskey exported by Suntory alone in 2017 approached 300 million liters, which would fill a supertanker that transports oil.
By the way, the size of the Japanese domestic whiskey market is expected to reach $ 3.4 billion by 2020, or more than HUF 1 billion.
This is a 24 percent increase over 2016.
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