(15 Mar 2017) LEADIN:
Japanese whisky is winning accolades from around the world, often beating the Scottish brands it originally set out to emulate.
A 25 year old Yamazaki in a sherry cask, fetches thousands of dollars and now bar owners say the whisky has such a high reputation that the demand for good Japanese whisky is outstripping supply.
STORYLINE:
The Suntory distillery in Yamazaki, near the ancient capital of Kyoto, is where it all began, at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month of 1924, as legend goes, when the first drop of made-in-Japan malt whisky was created.
"The spirit of Japanese 'monozukuri' (production) is also evident in whisky – extremely meticulous with detail and sparing no effort, and closely scrutinising its quality during production. These two elements become evident in the characteristics of Japanese whisky, and I think it is a combination of this together with Japanese culture, which everyone in the world evaluates highly," says Shinji Fukuyo, Suntory's Chief Blender
Surrounded by bamboo groves, pastoral hills and crystal clear ground water is a dim storage room filled wall-to-wall with 3,000 wooden barrels. Here sleeps, for years, sometimes decades, Japan's prized whisky.
"What we value most is the production of different malt whiskies. We produce different malt whisky here at this place, and then it goes to the distillery's pot still, and we use different types of pot stills. Then it goes to casks, for which we have different types of casks, and even for maturing we use different storage conditions. We have three different storages for maturing. And so we have all these different processes to create many different malt whiskies, so that when the blender chooses one from the many different kinds of malt whisky, he can create a blend that can reach far and wide around the world," says Taichi Sasaki, Suntory's whisky specialist.
Suntory's success story echoes that of others from Japan Inc., such as automaker Toyota Motor Corp. and musical instrument manufacturer Yamaha Corp., companies that followed in the tracks of Western pioneers but ended up doing what they did quite well, if not outdoing them.
Shinjiro Torii, the founder of the Japanese beverage maker, wanted to introduce Scotch to Japan. At first, he failed. He gradually adapted the methods of whisky-making to make whisky that was more palatable for Japanese. The company name comes from "sun" combined with his last name.
Besides the ground water, a key element, and this nation's dynamic seasonal changes, believed to deepen whisky flavours during the years of aging, the careful craftsmanship Japanese workers are known for is also believed to be a plus.
It was always easy to blend whisky flavours in Scotland to concoct great products because, given its history, there were so many distilleries. But Suntory had to develop various methods on its own to produce a whole array of whisky. It used various temperatures and combination of yeasts for fermentation, which is carried out in huge vats, ahead of distilling and aging.
Suntory also came up with more shapes for the huge metallic containers used for distilling, called "pot stills." The curved, pot-bellied and bending pot stills quicken or delay the process, producing nuances of flavours. The fermented beige liquid turns to vapour with heat, and then gets distilled to a colourless liquid that smells almost like antiseptic.
It's still a mystery how exactly whisky ages, says Fukuyo.
Fukuyo says he avoids garlic or greasy fish, especially for breakfast, to keep taste buds pure for his job.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
