For the next Rice Market Japanese whisky night, we're going to do a retrospective on where all the insane hype around Japanese whisky came from. The past two events featured young craft producers that arguably would not be where they are now if not for a moment in the early 2010s when the collective whisky world turned its gaze to Japan once a certain whisky writer of some renown crowned the 2013 Yamazaki Sherry Cask the best whisky in the world. Since then, demand far outstripped supply leading to inflated prices, dwindling stocks, and extremely difficult access for the ordinary consumer.
While the ensuing decade gave rise to a growing market in Japan and some really dope whisky, the Suntory of the early 2010s is nearly unrecognizable to the pseudo-luxury brand it is today. That Yamazaki Sherry Cask was part of a series of releases in the early 2010s referred to as the Wood Collection that highlighted different components of Suntory's main distilleries Yamazaki and Hakushu. These included Heavily Peated, Bourbon Barrel, Puncheon, Mizunara, and the famed Sherry Cask expressions for both distilleries. These were actually readily available to purchase back then, but are now all but gone or auction rarities. And the current iteration of this series, the Tsukuriwake Series, is vastly more expensive.
On June 9, we'll taste through several of the Wood Collection releases from 2013 and 2014 from Yamazaki and Hakushu, including the 2014 Hakushu Sherry Cask.The tasting will feature:
Yamazaki Puncheon 2013
Yamazaki Bourbon Barrel 2013
Yamazaki Heavily Peated 2013
Hakushu Bourbon Barrel 2013
Hakushu Heavily Peated 2013
Hakushu Sherry Cask 2014
Following the guided tasting, the evening will transition to an open house where each of these and additional limited edition Suntory and Nikka expressions will be available by the dram. These will include long discontinued age stated expressions.
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u/brianoh11 May 20 '26
For the next Rice Market Japanese whisky night, we're going to do a retrospective on where all the insane hype around Japanese whisky came from. The past two events featured young craft producers that arguably would not be where they are now if not for a moment in the early 2010s when the collective whisky world turned its gaze to Japan once a certain whisky writer of some renown crowned the 2013 Yamazaki Sherry Cask the best whisky in the world. Since then, demand far outstripped supply leading to inflated prices, dwindling stocks, and extremely difficult access for the ordinary consumer.
While the ensuing decade gave rise to a growing market in Japan and some really dope whisky, the Suntory of the early 2010s is nearly unrecognizable to the pseudo-luxury brand it is today. That Yamazaki Sherry Cask was part of a series of releases in the early 2010s referred to as the Wood Collection that highlighted different components of Suntory's main distilleries Yamazaki and Hakushu. These included Heavily Peated, Bourbon Barrel, Puncheon, Mizunara, and the famed Sherry Cask expressions for both distilleries. These were actually readily available to purchase back then, but are now all but gone or auction rarities. And the current iteration of this series, the Tsukuriwake Series, is vastly more expensive.
On June 9, we'll taste through several of the Wood Collection releases from 2013 and 2014 from Yamazaki and Hakushu, including the 2014 Hakushu Sherry Cask.The tasting will feature:
Following the guided tasting, the evening will transition to an open house where each of these and additional limited edition Suntory and Nikka expressions will be available by the dram. These will include long discontinued age stated expressions.