Total Lots Sold:
37
View Lots
Do you have this bottle for sale?
SELL IT TODAYHAMMER PRICE OVER TIME
This graph displays data solely from Whisky-Online Auctions past sales history. Please note the filling level of the liquid and the condition of an item can affect the price negatively, so please check individual Lot sales below if there's a sudden dip in the graph.
HAVE ONE FOR SALE?
Submit your details along with an image and a description of your bottle. We'll then be in touch with the best way to proceed.
WHY SELL WITH WHISKY-ONLINE AUCTIONS?
0% Sellers Commission
Free Collections Available
Over 30 Years In The Whisky Industry
Over 1,700 Five Star Trustpilot Reviews
We Sell The Rarest Whiskies Ever Bottled
Global Buying Audience Including Far East Buyers
Bespoke Auction Platform
Thousands Of Active Bidders
Large Database Of Newsletter Subscribers
Over 36k Social Media Followers
Yamazaki 18 Year Old
Yamazaki 18 Year Old. 70cl. 43%.
Yamazaki was Japan's first proper single malt whisky distillery, built in 1923 by the godfathers of Japanese whisky, Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru.
Originally launched in Japan in 1992, Yamazaki 18-year-old arrived in Europe rather later, but stormed into Western whisky fans' consciousness with a plethora of major international whisky awards from the mid-Noughties onwards.
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.
Distillery bottlings are, as the name suggests, bottled by or for the distillery from which the whisky has originated and are thus often referred to as Official Bottlings or OBs. Distillery bottlings are generally more desirable for collectors and usually fetch higher prices at auction than independent bottlings. They are officially-endorsed versions of the whisky from a particular distillery and are therefore considered the truest expression of the distillery’s character.
This ideal of the distillery character is regarded so seriously by the distilleries and brand owners that casks of whisky that are considered to vary too far from the archetype are frequently sold on to whisky brokers and independent bottlers. When this happens, it is often with the proviso that the distillery’s name is not allowed to be used when the cask is bottled for fear of diminishing or damaging the distillery’s character and status.