Japan, Yamanashi. Distillery operational. Owner: Suntory

Built in 1973 in a subtropical forest, Hakushu quickly doubled its production capacity in 1978 to accommodate 12 pairs of stills. Despite this increase, a second distillery equipped with 12 new pot stills was also built three years later (1981) and baptized Hakushu Higashi (East). The 1980s recession linked to a 1989 tax reform eventually, however, led to the closure of the historic distillery. Hakushu's strength lies in its ability to produce different styles of malt under the same pagoda, from peated malt to unpeated, full-bodied and light malts, enabling the group's master blender to produce blends such as the world-famous Hibiki.Less well known than its illustrious colleague Yamazaki, its malts are nonetheless highly sought-after, particularly its very rare editions matured in ex-sherry casks, such as Hakushu Sherry Cask Edition 2014, and its vintage peated single casks, such as The Cask of Hakushu 1993 and Heavily Peated, Edition 2008.

A Hakushu distilled in November 1981 and bottled in June 2003, matured in Japanese oak for 21 years. This is a limited edition of 373 bottles for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society. The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in Edinburgh in 1983 by a group of friends with a particular passion for whisky. The club selects casks whose bottles are then only available to members. The name of the distillery is not mentioned on the label but each distillery is given a number as the malt is bottled. The first cask selected by the SMWS, for example, was Glenfarclas, and it therefore uses the number 1. The second number refers to the number of bottlings from each distillery. In this case, this is the first (.1) Hakushu (120) to have been bottled by the SMWS. The club was sold to Glenmorangie in 2004 and then to a group of investors in 2016.