Nikka's founder Masataka Taketsuru is considered the father of Japanese whisky. 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. In 1934, he built Yoichi, his first distillery, on the island of Hokkaido. 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.

Taketsuru 25 Year Old is a blended malt that was part of the range of the same name, named after Nikka’’s founder Masataka Taketsuru, a key figure in the history of Japanese whisky. It was the oldest bottling in the range save for the Taketsuru 35 Year Old which, unlike the others, was a blend. Like the Taketsuru 17 Year Old and 21 Year Old, the 25 year old was discontinued in 2020 due to a lack of stock. This situation resulted from the incredible rise of Japanese whisky following over quarter of a century of major struggles. Today all that remains is a new version with no age statement.