Yamazaki Very Rare Old Suntory - 1980s

Japan’s Yamazaki distillery was founded in 1923 after Shinjiro Torii of Kotobukiya, which would later be renamed Suntory, poached the chemist Masataka Taketsuru from rivals Settsu Shuzo, who had sent Taketsuru to Scotland to study distillation, but had decided on his return not to build a distillery after all.

Torii and Taketsuru shared a desire to make Scotch-style single malt whisky in Japan. Torii constructed Yamazaki to Taketsuru’s specifications but overruled his wish to build in a mountain location. The frustrated Taketsuru saw out his contract with Suntory, running Yamazaki through its early years before departing to found Suntory’s great rivals Nikka. Yamazaki single malt whisky is the basis for Suntory’s Hibiki blend, and the distillery’s single malts are now highly sought-after worldwide.

Japanese entrepreneur Shinjiro Torii founded his first wine shop in Osaka in 1899 and by 1921 had set up the Kotobukiya drinks company, building Japan’s first single malt whisky distillery Yamazaki with Masataka Taketsuru, who would go on to found rivals Nikka, in 1923. 

After Torii’s death in 1962, Kotobukiya changed its name to Suntory in tribute to its founder and has continued to expand ever since, building the Chita and Hakushu distilleries in 1972-1973 and taking full control of Morrison Bowmore Distillers in 1994. Suntory bought Jim Beam in 2014, making it the world’s third largest drinks company with a portfolio including Bowmore, Auchentoshan, Glen Garioch, Ardmore, Laphroaig and Cooley distilleries and the Teacher’s and Hibiki blended whiskies.