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Yamazaki
Founded
1924
Region
Japan
Status
Operational
Company
Production type
Single malt
Production capacity
6,000,000 litres per year
Yamazaki is the flagship single malt distillery of Suntory in Japan. It is the nation's oldest malt producer, established in 1923 by Shinjirō Torii through what was then known as Kotobukiya Ltd. The town of Yamazaki was chosen to be the site of Japan’s first commercial distillery due to having a climate similar to that of the Scottish Highlands and situated in an area where three rivers converge. The first spirit ran from the stills in 1924, on 11th November at 11:11am.
In its early days, Yamazaki produced both malt and grain for Suntory's blends, but the opening of the Chita distillery in 1972 allowed the company to focus on its single malt brand. It is now one of the world's most desirable.
The first Yamazaki single malts was bottled by Suntory in 1984 when it launched the a 12-year-old expression. The Yamazaki brand follows a similar marketing style to many Japanese single malt in that it is presented as a subset of the overall Suntory Whisky label, differentiated from Hakushu only by their colour schemes.
The 12-year-old remains the core range age statement to this day, joined by an 18-year-old in 1992 and a 25-year-old in 1998. A 10-year-old was also introduced in 1995 but was discontinued due to a shortage of aged supply in 2013. As a result of said shortage, a new proprietary non-age statement called Distiller's Reserve was introduced as the flagship expression in 2014.
Yamazaki Distillery
5-2-1 Yamazaki
Shimamoto-cho
Mishima-gun
Osaka
Japan
Active brands
Single malt