Nikka Gold & Gold Samurai

The Nikka company was founded in 1934 by the father of Japanese whisky, Masataka Taketsuru, after he let his ten year contract with Shinjiro Torii lapse following a disagreement over the location of the latter's Yamazaki distillery. Taketsuru used his experience of building and running Yamazaki to construct a new distillery, named Yoichi, in the mountains of Hokkaido, whose location and climate he believed more closely resembled the Scottish landscape in which he had learned his craft.

Asahi Holdings acquired Nikka in 1954, but Taketsuru remained at the helm of the company and built the Sendai distillery (now known as Miyagikyo) in 1969. After Masataka Taketsuru’s death in 1979 his nephew and adopted son Takeshi took over at Nikka, returning to Scotland to buy the moribund Ben Nevis distillery in 1989. Takeshi Taketsuru greatly expanded Nikka’s overseas operations and exports, and played a major part in Japanese whisky’s present success.