Confession: I’ve never been a massive whisky fan. It took a well-known Scottish chef to sit me down one night post-service to explain the finer details of it to me (while imbibing quite a few) before I developed a professional appreciation for it. Even then, it wasn’t my drink of choice, until recently.
Enter the delicious world of Japanese whisky, with its more delicate, approachable styles that took my breath away. And I’m not the only one; over the past decade demand for Japanese whisky has outstripped supply. Some producers, such as master blender Jota Tanaka at Fuji, claim it would take “close to another 10 years to meet the global demands”.
After drinking one of the seasonal Highballs (flavoured with spiced peach to enhance the spirit’s floral notes) at The Elysian Whisky Bar in Fitzroy, I can see what all the fuss is about. The Elysian’s owner Yao Wong has seen a steady increase in people requesting to try Japanese whisky “because they had heard about it from others – even those who are not whisky drinkers at all”.
But as often happens when something becomes popular, people acting in bad faith try to capitalise on it. Wong explains, “Wonderful Japanese whiskies we used to drink daily 10 years ago have suddenly become insane collector’s items that speculators hoard and trade like commodities. We’re seeing really crazy retail and after-market prices for Japanese whisky in Australia. And still, they get snapped up quickly and willingly.”
This demand led to a slew of “Japanese” presenting whiskies being released on the market, confusing consumers who sought the genuine article. So even though Japanese whisky is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year, it’s only recently that strict guidelines and criteria for what constitutes Japanese whisky have been outlined. The jist of the new criteria is: production, ageing and bottling must all occur in Japan and only Japanese water can be used during distillation. This kind of clarification and definition of spirits has long been a comfort to Scotch whisky drinkers, who enjoy knowing the product in the bottle is what it says it is.
Multi-award-winning master blender Tanaka, in charge of whisky creation at the Fuji distillery, was instrumental in helping create the new guidelines (alongside other distilleries such as Nikka and Mars Distillery). He notes they didn’t want the classifications to stifle innovation “but to provide integrity, high quality and prove provenance of the spirit”.
