Japan, Osaka. Distillery operational. Owner: Suntory

If ever the Scottish distillery Macallan had an alter ego, it would be Yamazaki. The doyen of Japanese distilleries, Yamazaki has, since the closure of Karuizawa in the early 2000s, dominated the sherry cask maturation scene with its standard bearer The Yamazaki 18 Year Old and the now very rare Yamazaki 25 Year Old. Sherry has become Yamazaki's trademark, with numerous medals and awards recognizing its expertise in and mastery of this style of maturation in demanding latitudes. A large number of small batch versions - such as The Yamazaki Distiller's Sherry Edition 2013, and single casks - such as The Yamazaki Elephant Private Cask 3T70070, have played their part in this. Yamazaki is also renowned for its Mizunara Japanese oak casks, such as The Yamazaki 1986 Owner's Cask 6G5029 and its small batch vintage versions which demonstrate the master blender's skill in marrying casks from different origins (Spain, America, Japan) and different woods (sherry, bourbon, mizunara), such as in The Yamazaki 25 Year Old 1984.

A single cask Yamazaki (#CU70066) distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2012, matured in a sherry butt. Yamazaki is renowned for the quality of its sherry casks, which undergo a meticulous selection process, from the choice of tree to the choice of cask. When this whisky was bottled, Suntory was still regularly releasing exceptional casks in The Cask range or specially for customers in The Owner’’s Cask range. The growing success of Japanese whisky and the industry’’s struggle to meet demand led these special editions to come to an end.