Nikka's founder Masataka Taketsuru is considered the father of Japanese whisky. He was born into a family of saké producers. After completing studies in chemistry, he was recruited by the Settsu Shuzo company, who sent him to Scotland in 1918 to complete his apprenticeship. There he developed a passion for whisky and decided to dedicate his life to it. On his return to Japan in 1923, Masataka joined the Kotobukiya group, later renamed Suntory, where he was entrusted with the creation of Yamazaki, Japan's first ever distillery. In 1934, he built Yoichi, his first distillery, on the island of Hokkaido. To achieve this, he sought to reproduce conditions similar to those used to make great Scottish whiskies, eventually settling by the sea in a village with a harsh, cold climate, peat bogs and fresh sea air. Still to this day, distillation methods follow tradition. The stills are heated by a coal fire, at a very high temperature, then the whiskies are aged in oak casks. The company adopted the name Nikka Whisky in 1952. Its growing success enabled him to establish a second distillery in 1969, near Sendai, named Miyagikyo. It is from the single malts of these two distilleries that the Nikka Whisky group produces its entire range of Japanese whiskies. Masataka Taketsuru died in 1979, leaving behind a colossal legacy for Japanese whisky, thanks to this house which regularly wins awards and is praised by the specialist press.

Taketsuru 21 Year Old, which is named after Nikka’’s founder Masataka Taketsuru, is a blend of whiskies from the group’’s two distilleries, Yoichi and Miyagikyo. Taketsuru is a key figure in the history of Japanese whisky, as it was he who travelled to Scotland to learn how to make whisky from 1918 to 1921. Upon his return, he worked for a short time for Kotobukiya, before founding what would later become Nikka and building Yoichi in Hokkaido in 1934. This version of Taketsuru 21 Year Old, bottled to mark the group’’s 80th anniversary in 2014, is finished in a Madeira cask.