Hakushu & Yamazaki Single Casks for Whisky Shop W. 3rd Anniversary

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Earlier this week, Suntory’s flagship store Whisky Shop W. in Osaka celebrated its 3rd anniversary. Just like last year and the year before, they released two single casks to mark the occasion. Last year, the top dogs at Suntory had dropped some strong hints that the 2nd anniversary bottlings would be the last for a while as they were dealing with stock shortages. With a bit of persuasion from the people in charge of Whisky Shop W., they changed their minds and asked chief blender Shinji Fukuyo to select two special casks for this year’s celebrations.

Fukuyo-san selected a 1999 Hakushu hogshead (cask #DG41666, 55%abv, 210 bottles) and a 2000 Yamazaki Spanish oak sherry butt (cask #EO70049, 59%abv, 506 bottles). They were launched a few days ago (on Monday) and while there’s still plenty of the Yamazaki, the Hakushu won’t last very long anymore. Of the 140 set aside for sale at the shop, 90 remain at the time of writing. At Suntory’s online shop, however, it is close to being sold out.

If you’re in the Kansai area, you can try the new single casks at Whisky Shop W. for a mere 400yen (15ml). And if you’re there and haven’t tried the recent Hakushu Heavily Peated release yet, you can grab a baby bottle (180ml) – it’s the only place in the country where you can still find it.

Read more about Yamazaki Distillery here.
Read more about Hakushu Distillery here.