When I first came to Japan in around 2006, it was for just a breif 4 night stop over on my way back from the US. I was young and even more naive back then (now I’m older but probably just as naive) and I did not appreciate whiskies as much as I do now. However I had read about some Japanese whiskey and was keen to try some whilst in Japan. Also back then finding aged Japanese whiskey was relatively simple, it could even be found in the local electrical goods store?!
At this point my experience with whiskey was largely limited to those produced in Scotland and Ireland, and given my budget, I tended to drink what was perhaps not the best representation from these locations.
Whilst I do not think that whiskey needs to be aged or expensive to be good, just like wine, there are some very good cheap, young examples, however given my knowledge on the subject I’d perhaps not yet had the understanding to seek these examples out.
Anyway, as I mentioned I was in Japan for a few days and intent on trying some of the local whiskeys. I didn’t have it in mind at the time to buy any bottles but rather wanted to find some little hidden bars where I could sample a variety of what Japan had to offer. To my surprise the bars offered some very good aged local whiskey at a very reasonable price. The rest is slightly blurred… with time obviously.
On my next visit to Japan a few years later, recalling the great experience I had, I decided to buy a couple bottles of whiskey, which from memory were the 21yo Nikka Pure Malt and a 18yo Yamazaki, which I believe cost me around $100 to $150AUD at the time.
After drinking these in Aus with some friends, also along with some good Scotch, it became apparent how good these Japanese whiskies were. On subsequent trips to Japan I always tired to take some time to explore and find a bar, to try some local whiskey. I also discovered that the owners of these bars, who were typically the same person serving the whiskey, were very interesting characters. It somehow seemed possible to share our passion for whiskey despite the language barrier, perhaps after a few glasses it became easier, or just perhaps the primal incoherence of whiskey addled humans is universal.
More recently, from around 2014 Japan whiskey was very popular globally and unfortunately finding those cheap ages bottle became very hard, and typically very expensive. However for those of us, determined they can still be found in some small bars which still pour great old whisky for a reasonable price.
A recent example of this, is my last couple of trips to Japan were I found these on offer. Which are obviously not local but when Japanese whiskey is not available some old and unique bottles of Scotch can still be found such as these:
Japan has a warm place in my heart, and not just from the whiskey, but as a place were a little dark bar which only seats about 10 people, can be found situated in the middle of the city, on a crowded streets filled with lights and high rise buildings, and the owner is still pouring whiskey at prices representative of what they were when he bought the bottles many years ago.
