A new whisky festival in Tokyo: Bottlers' Festival 2014

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

2014 will be a bit of a strange year here in Japan, in terms of whisky festivals. Up until now, we had the biggest event of the year (TIBS/Whisky Live) in the Spring, and then a plethora of other whisky festivals in the Fall. This year, TIBS/Whisky Live is moving to the Fall (September 20-21) and whisky fans had started wondering how this would affect the balance of whisky festivals in Japan. It's still unclear how the other festivals - the ones commonly held in the Fall - will respond to this new situation, but as of today, we know we won't have to wait until after Summer for a whisky gathering. Tickets have just gone on sale for a brand new festival that will be held on the 30th of March at the JAL City Hotel in Tokyo (11:00-17:00). 'Bottlers' Festival 2014' is - as the name indicates - completely dedicated to independent bottlings. It's organized by the good folk at the Scotch Whisky Research Centre so it should be good fun. Nonjatta will be attending, and we look forward to bringing you news about the latest bottlings for the Japanese market from the event.