Marcin Miller, Number One Drinks and the Legacy of Karuizawa

Few figures have played a more influential role in introducing Japanese whisky to international audiences than Marcin Miller. As co-founder of the independent bottler and importer, Number One Drinks, alongside David Croll, Miller helped bring some of Japan’s rarest and most important whiskies to collectors across Europe and beyond at a time when Japanese whisky remained largely unknown outside its domestic market.

Before establishing Number One Drinks in 2005, Miller had already spent years immersed in the drinks industry through publishing. After university, he entered the magazine world through advertising sales before becoming publisher, and later editor and publisher, of Whisky Magazine. It was through Whisky Magazine and Whisky Live that he first developed strong connections with Japan and its whisky industry.

At the time, Japanese whisky occupied a very different position internationally. Outside Japan, few consumers had encountered it, and even within the whisky world it was still treated with a degree of scepticism. Miller recalled of his first trip to Japan in the late 1990s.

I remember sitting on the plane thinking, Japanese whisky, what a ludicrous concept, it didn’t make any sense to me at all.

That perception changed quickly after arriving in Japan. Visits to distilleries such as Yoichi revealed not only the quality of the whisky itself, but the wider culture of precision, craftsmanship and attention to detail surrounding it.

The further north I travelled towards Yoichi, the more Japan started looking like Scotland to me. Then you arrive at Yoichi Distillery and suddenly it feels strangely familiar, almost like visiting an old Scottish distillery. But at the same time, everything about the experience was uniquely Japanese.

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For Miller, the quality of the whisky soon became impossible to ignore.

Yoichi 10 Year Old was astonishing. It had extraordinary balance and character. People needed to learn more about these whiskies.

That belief ultimately shaped the direction of Number One Drinks. While David Croll had established strong distribution networks within Japan, Miller recognised an opportunity to introduce Japanese whisky to audiences outside the country.

The penny dropped that we should be looking at smaller Japanese producers and trying to introduce their whiskies to the world outside Japan.

That journey would soon become closely tied to Karuizawa. When Number One Drinks first became aware of the remaining Karuizawa stocks, the distillery was far from the legendary name it would later become. Production had ceased in 2000 and the remaining casks sat largely unnoticed, with very little international awareness surrounding the distillery.

However, both their first impressions was that the quality of the whisky immediately stood apart.

The key moment came during a tasting at Karuizawa with Dave Broom, David Croll and Noriko Croll. We tasted 69 cask strength samples in one morning and every single one except one was phenomenal. The hit rate was extraordinary. That’s when I realised these whiskies were truly special.

Looking back, the acquisition and preservation of the remaining Karuizawa casks would become one of the defining moments in the distillery’s modern legacy. Through Number One Drinks, many of those casks were bottled and introduced to collectors internationally at a time when Japanese whisky was only beginning to gain wider recognition.

Despite Karuizawa’s current near-mythical reputation, Miller insists there was no sense at the time that the whiskies would eventually command such global reverence.

I didn’t know it would become a global phenomenon, anyone who says they knew is probably lying. But the quality was there from the beginning.

The earliest Number One Drinks releases largely followed the established presentation style associated with traditional single cask bottlings from the distillery. Over time, however, the company began exploring more ambitious visual concepts that reflected wider aspects of Japanese culture and craftsmanship.

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Series such as Noh Whisky introduced labels inspired by traditional Japanese theatre, while later collections such as the Geisha series became some of the most visually recognisable Karuizawa bottlings ever produced.

Among the most significant releases for Miller personally was the celebrated Karuizawa 52 Year Old, drawn from single sherry cask #5627. Originally released in 2013, the whisky remains one of the oldest and rarest Karuizawa bottlings ever produced, with only 41 bottles yielded from the cask after more than five decades of maturation.

For Miller, the bottling represented far more than rarity alone. Every aspect of the presentation was carefully considered, from the individually named bottles and hand-carved katabori netsuke to the handcrafted wooden presentation boxes and Japanese calligraphy.

The whisky always had to justify the presentation. The quality came first.

The release became one of the clearest demonstrations of how Number One Drinks approached Karuizawa during this period: combining exceptional whisky with presentation that reflected the same level of craftsmanship and attention to detail found within the spirit itself.

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More than a decade later, Karuizawa continues to captivate collectors around the world. For Miller, part of that fascination comes from the combination of rarity, distillery character and the fact that the whisky can never truly be recreated.

Today, bottles once regarded as niche curiosities have become defining examples of rare Japanese whisky collecting, with Karuizawa occupying a uniquely important position within that story. Through Number One Drinks, Marcin Miller and David Croll helped preserve and introduce the remaining stocks of a closed distillery long before the wider world fully recognised their significance.

The story of Karuizawa is also deeply personal for Miller. With Number One Drinks having now released its final Karuizawa bottlings and no remaining stock left, the departure of bottles such as The Poet represents both an ending and a continuation.

“It’s both, For Number One Drinks, it absolutely feels like the end of a chapter because we released our final Karuizawa bottlings recently and we now have no stock left.

At the same time, consigning the bottle (The Poet) continues the story because it gives somebody else the opportunity to experience it. I’ve tasted the 1960s multiple times already. I can’t realistically imagine myself opening this particular bottle now, so I’d rather somebody else enjoy it with friends.

He admits that seeing the bottle finally leave was unexpectedly emotional.

I did actually feel emotional when the bottle left the house,” he said. “After it was collected, I took a photograph of the empty space where it had been sitting and sent it to my wife saying: ‘It is gone.’ But ultimately, it’s a beautiful thing. The story continues with somebody else now.

The Karuizawa 52 Year Old Cask #5627 ‘The Poet’ will be offered in our upcoming exclusive Japan auction, which goes live on 12 June 2026. The auction will also feature hundreds of rare and unique Japanese whiskies spanning legendary distilleries, historic single casks and highly sought-after collector releases.