More bearded tales

A few weeks ago I asked readers if they could help identify Nikka whisky`s iconic "King of Blenders"? To those not living in Japan this may seem an abstruse topic but the logo is ubiquitous in Japanese liquor stores. I need to know whose icy blue eyes are staring at me from every bottle of Nikka Black.

Well, Taylor Smisson has written in with a definitive answer. Nonjatta has mentioned Taylor before. I`m not sure he would thank me for saying this, but he is the doyen of whisky drinking foreigners in Japan. Until earlier this year, his "Malt Drinkers Diary" website tracked a "bottle-by-bottle journey through the city that is the Scotch single malt drinker's heaven on earth: Tokyo." He finished that project this April but not before he had tasted more than 4,000 malts. 4,000!

I am just going to dump his very thorough bearded man research straight onto the site because this information has not been brought together anywhere else, either in Japanese or English. Click here for the full beardy brief...