more on the japanese whisky shortage

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, gweilgi said:

With a booming global market, I expect other countries to take up the slack (or try to, at any rate).  How many years until the experts choose an Indian, Swedish or German whisky as the Next Big Thing?  

already seeing it. estimates suggest that at least 25 nations now make whisky. The Belgian Owl Distillery in Hesbaye region of Belgium has made numerous award-winning whiskies. who knew (i'm taking some of this from a piece i have prepared for the new Explore Whisky Guide, out soon). Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan another that is now starring (what i love about this is that this distillery is owned by the King Car Group, because alcohol and driving go so well together. Best New World Whisky 2012, and so on.

Switzerland has around two dozen distilleries - extraordinary when you consider that distilling grain was illegal up until 1999. Even Norway has ten distilleries.

the spirits industry in India, not just with whiskies but across the board. whisky rules, almost 60% of the spirits market in that country, which equates to around 175 million cases. Radico Khaitan is India's fourth largest spirits company. their first malt whisky was released to the world in 2016 and by 2017, it is ranked in the top five whiskies in the prestigious San Francisco competition, picking up double gold.

 

[gweilgi]

44 minutes ago, Ken Gargett said:

already seeing it. estimates suggest that at least 25 nations now make whisky. The Belgian Owl Distillery in Hesbaye region of Belgium has made numerous award-winning whiskies. who knew (i'm taking some of this from a piece i have prepared for the new Explore Whisky Guide, out soon). Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan another that is now starring (what i love about this is that this distillery is owned by the King Car Group, because alcohol and driving go so well together. Best New World Whisky 2012, and so on.

Switzerland has around two dozen distilleries - extraordinary when you consider that distilling grain was illegal up until 1999. Even Norway has ten distilleries.

the spirits industry in India, not just with whiskies but across the board. whisky rules, almost 60% of the spirits market in that country, which equates to around 175 million cases. Radico Khaitan is India's fourth largest spirits company. their first malt whisky was released to the world in 2016 and by 2017, it is ranked in the top five whiskies in the prestigious San Francisco competition, picking up double gold.

 

Germany is also ramping up its production, helped in part by the abolition of the grain spirit subsidy last year -- and many of the producers have considerable experience in the distillation of high-quality hooch.  

Not to mention those producers that take shortcuts, such as Couvreur from France who does not actually distill his own spirits but buys it in from Scotland....

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, gweilgi said:

Germany is also ramping up its production, helped in part by the abolition of the grain spirit subsidy last year -- and many of the producers have considerable experience in the distillation of high-quality hooch.  

Not to mention those producers that take shortcuts, such as Couvreur from France who does not actually distill his own spirits but buys it in from Scotland....

michel couvreur is an interesting one. they have been doing that for years, but it has never been a secret. visited them a few years ago - tiny place in a tiny tiny village in burgundy but still had to go around the village on three separate visits before we eventually found them. the son-in-law runs it now and continues the same process. met michel. an elderly man now. he dug the cellars himself - hell of an effort. started with him visiting often - he was there on whatever his business was back then - as he had an interest and then started buying and maturing and bottling. some terrific stuff.

michel brought out his old record books as he had something he wanted to show us as we were from australia - giant accounting style books and showed us one from 1970 or 71, forget which. one if his biggest clients got a couple of shipments a year. delivered to the cooktown post office. was never able to find out who or why there. back in the 70s, that must have been a wild place. but tiny. how the connection came about, no idea. my guess is that it might have been a cattle property owner who only came in to town a couple of times a year or possibly someone living off on one of the islands who came to the mainland a couple of times a year for supplies. but no idea how they knew about couvreur or how they arranged the orders back then.

[OZCUBAN]

7 hours ago, dicko said:

Was it the hibiki 21 we had together? Incredible....

Sent from my SM-G965F using Tapatalk
 

Yea mate it was absolutely sublime picked it up in Japan 3years ago was about 300 350 $ now over a grand ?

but at the end of the day it’s meant to be drunk and we have the memories of it and the cigars that were paired ??

[JohnS]

Thanks Ken for this timely article. I managed to pick up the last bottle of Hakushu 12 this afternoon from my local independent store at the old price! ? ☺️

[TNT009]

Guess I'll go CostCo and grab a few of the regular Hibikis!

[PapaDisco]

23 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

Kavalan Distillery in Taiwan another that is now starring (what i love about this is that this distillery is owned by the King Car Group, because alcohol and driving go so well together. Best New World Whisky 2012, and so on.

Ha ha,  that was always one of my favorite points about the whisky too . . . nothing quite so charming as bringing someone a fine bottle from the "King Car Manufacturing Company."    The name practically screams 'good taste' in fine spirits!

[Fuzz]

Just picked up 6 bottles of the Hakushu Distiller's Reserve for the Sydney boys.

[Fuzz]

1 hour ago, PapaDisco said:

Ha ha,  that was always one of my favorite points about the whisky too . . . nothing quite so charming as bringing someone a fine bottle from the "King Car Manufacturing Company."    The name practically screams 'good taste' in fine spirits!

They were trying to find a new formula for a renewable fuel.

[CaskStrength]

4 minutes ago, Fuzz said:

They were trying to find a new formula for a renewable fuel.

New world leaders in gas siphoning incidents.

[Fuzz]

9 minutes ago, CaskStrength said:

New world leaders in gas siphoning incidents.

When you're at the pump, "One for you, one for me, one for you, one for me *hic*...."

[SMQQKIN]

My past New Years libation that was shared with my closest friends on a ski trip. Finished it! Only 100 ceramic bottles made -  Nectar of the gods. 

[OZCUBAN]

2 hours ago, SMQQKIN said:

My past New Years libation that was shared with my closest friends on a ski trip. Finished it! Only 100 ceramic bottles made -  Nectar of the gods. 

Well done sir ??

[BeerPimp]

Going to stop at my favorite liquor store and pick up a bottle they had about 8-10 different Japanese Whiskies.

[mt1]

Before you guys all go and make the situation worse (like I did), I think that NAS Japanese whiskies will be around forever, so at least buy the ones with age statements.

Still waiting for the Nikka 40 to become obscenely expensive so I can cash out ?

[nsills]

Bumping this topic - need some advice 

What would you guys pick up? These are Singapore dollars so divide by 1.36 for USD

 

[Markspring1978]

The Yamasaki price is outrageous. 

[SMQQKIN]

All those prices are crazy high & can be obtained for much less even on the secondary market if you do a little hunting.

[GavLew79]

I remember Yamazaki 18 on sale in the UK for under £100 quid. At the time I thought "oof, that's a bit rich". Then, seemingly overnight, it was £500 and now all gone. The 12 was £35 at the time!!! Nuts. 

[Baccy]

How much should one pay for a bottle of Yamazaki 18?