Month: July 2017

Whiskey Wednesday: The Yamazaki Price

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What would you do with $130,000? Buy a house? A Tesla? Travel the world? Or maybe you decide screw it and go for the most expensive bottle of whisky ever sold: the Yamazaki 50 year old single malt 2005 release.

In October of 2016 one of the 250 bottles of Yamazaki distilled in the mid-1950s claimed the Guinness World record for the most expensive standard size bottle of whisky ever sold for $129,186. That’s a nearly 1300% increase over the original sticker price of $9,500. That’s a massive return on investment, even for 50 year old whisky, but it’s made even more impressive when you consider that the Yamazaki distillery itself is less than 100 years old and the first Yamazaki single malt wasn’t released until 1984.

caption.jpgSuntory founder and first master blender, Shinjiro Torii and Masataka Taketsuru, “The Father of Japanese Whisky”, founded the Yamazaki distillery in 1923. Taketsuru had studied organic chemistry in Glasgow and was found by Torii after he made inquiries to Scotland looking for a whisky expert. Torii was told there was already one fully qualified in his own country and the two worked closely to build the Yamazaki distillery. However, the first whisky produced by the new company, dubbed the Suntory Shirofuda was a resounding failure. The Japanese drinkers preference for lighter, blended whiskies was blamed as well as Taketsuru’s fixation on doing things the “Scottish way.” Taketsuru was shunted away from the distillery to a beer factory where he served out the remainder of his ten year contract before leaving to start the Nikka distilling company, Suntory’s biggest rival.

Despite these early set backs the Suntory company pressed on, releasing the Kakubin in 1937 and after being postponed by WWII, the Suntory Old Whisky in 1950. In 1961 the company send the first Japanese Whisky imports to the United States and Torii’s son Keizo Saji took over as president and Master Blender. The next few years were full of experimentation including opening the Chita Distillery in 1972, the Hakushu Distillery in 1973, and the release of Midori in the United States in 1978. The next big shift for the company comes in 1984 when Saji moved the company away from it’s focus on blends with the very first release of Suntory Single Malt Whisky Yamazaki.

The 80’s proved to be a pivotal time for Suntory not only because of the new focus on single malts but because the other distilleries opened in the 70s allowed them to produce more varied styles of whisky culminating in the first release of the Hibiki Blended Whisky in 1989. The Suntory Single Malts may be carry the highest price tags but Suntory still considers themselves to be a blending house and the Hibiki’s are what they consider to be the pinnacle of their art.

All the pieces were in place yet as you may have heard the 90’s were not the most hospitable of decades to brown spirits. It took a new millennium as well as a series of rapid-fire rewards to rocket Japanese whisky from niche good to internationally coveted whisky.

The Yamazaki is caught between a rock and a hard place; soaring success chased by the rising struggle to support the base of that success.

In 2003 Suntory’s Yamazaki Single Malt 12 year won it’s first Gold Award at the International Spirits Challenge in the UK followed relatively quickly by Suntory becoming the first Japanese whisky producer to be awarder “Distiller of the Year” by the same ISC in 2010.

The Yamazaki Distillery expanded in 2013 with the addition of four stills, bringing the imgp9795.jpgtotal to 12, which increased capacity about 40%. The added capacity didn’t prevent them from releasing the Non-Age Statement Yamazaki and Hakushu Distiller’s Reserve the following year just as talk of the worldwide whisky shortage began to surface. Also in 2014, Suntory purchased Beam, Inc. (home of the eponymous Jim Beam Bourbon) for $16 billion forming Beam Suntory, the third largest spirit producer in the world. This acquisition greatly expanded Suntory’s distribution lines spreading the already thin stocks of Yamazaki even thinner.

The final nail in the Japanese Whisky hype train was also driven home in 2014 when the Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013 won the coveted Jim Murray “World Whiskey of the Year” award. With that the path is set and we’re barreling towards the inevitable $130,000 bottle.

Yet with all this focus on the mythical, never to be seen bottles that dominate the headlines, what has become of the mythical, occasionally glimpsed bottles that built the reputation of Yamazaki and Suntory in the first place?

The Yamazaki 12 Year is still liquid gold in a bottle. The whisky is aged in a combination of American ex-Bourbon, Spanish Sherry, and Japanese Mizunara oak cask. It is, you guessed it, a minimum of 12 years old and bottled at 86 proof. What has always struck me about this whisky is the amount of fruit on the nose. Ripe peach, with a touch of grapefruit and orange, followed by a rich lingering mid palette that leaves an almost toasted bread note before disappearing into a long finish that is edged with dark baking spices.

IMG_4145.JPGWhile the 12 year was once the perfect introduction to Japanese malt, before the price and the hype got in the way, it was the Yamazaki 18 year that always stirred my soul. This time roughly 80% Sherry casks with ex-Bourbon and Mizunara making up the other 20%. Here the promise of the 12 year has evolved into a stately elegance. The fruit dries out, turning to raison and apricot with dark chocolate and berries on the tongue with a touch of spice on the long march to the finish.

In the end these spirits are deserving of every award they’ve had draped around their bottles necks, yet I can’t help but feel like they are victims of their own success. The price on these bottles has steadily climbed while availability has dropped. Drinkers are driven to seek these “more available” bottles every time a headline splashes a story bottle of Yamazaki selling for more than the median household income of a small family only to be disgruntled when they turn up empty handed. Products like the Yamazaki Distillers Select, the Hibiki Harmony, or the Nikka Pure Malt may help bridge that gap in the category, but no matter how vehemently the companies talk about these products being “different” and “not replacements for age stated products” seasoned drinkers can’t help but feel that their old toys are being taken away while they’re charged more. It’s a story they see time and time again as the trend sweeps through whisk(e)y brands across the globe.

The Yamazaki is caught between a rock and a hard place; soaring success chased by the rising struggle to support the base of that success. It’s a good problem to have and one without an easy answer but it is a debate that certainly is helped with a glass of liquid gold in hand while you have it.

Whiskey Wednesday: The Chivas Brothers

Some things seem so ubiquitous, so omnipresent that they become nearly invisible. All of the work, all of the marketing, but most importantly all of the quality that must be present to get them to that pervasive point becomes overlooked and it all just fades into the background. That had been my experience of Chivas Regal until recently.

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No matter how much we preach the gospel of Single Malt Scotch, Blended Whisky is the true king. And if Johnny Walker sits upon the Iron Throne, Chivas Brothers is the King in the North. With the now iconic 12 year blend the market leader in Europe and Asia and over 4.4 million cases of Chivas Regal shipped world wide it’s easy to see how Chivas can be lost in the whisky sea. When everyone is clamoring for the rarest, the newest and the most unique bottlings how could something that sits on nearly every back bar in the world be anything special?

However the history of the brand shows one of evolution, experimentation, massive growth and success.

Chivas traces its roots all the way back to 1801 and small grocery store started by John Forrest in the town of Aberdeen. The Chivas family first became involved in 1836 with James Chivas joining the growing company and by the 1850’s they had responded to demand for luxury whiskey and were bottling their first blends under the name Royal Glen Dee.

Chivas Regal first found a home and an identity in the United States in 1909 with the launch of Chivas Regal 25 year old. The blend became the world’s first true luxury blended whiskey and it was an immediate hit with the New York high society. The brand rode high for several years until WW1 which limited shipping and then the disaster that was Prohibition struck. Almost more devastating to the brand than these events was the selling of the company and offloading its massive whisky stocks, in 1936.

When Chivas Regal was relaunched in the US in 1939 it was introduced as a 12 Year old in an attempt to preserve stocks. The company was then sold again, this time to Seagram’s in 1949. The next year Seagram’s purchased the Milton distillery, renamed Strathisla, which remains the primary malt and spiritual home of Chivas to this day.

Seagram’s took over the Glenlivet Group in 1977 and when Seagram’s went under in 2001 Chivas and the Glenlivet were purchased by Pernod Ricard which consolidated all of their whisky interests, including the Aberlour distillery that was already in their portfolio, under the Chivas Brother’s banner.

The brand has massive stocks to draw on and throughout it’s history hasn’t shied away from experimentation and innovation. For instance, The Royal Salute line was introduced in 1953 to celebrate the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and is the only line of blended Scotch whiskey that starts at 21 years of age. I’ve been fortunate enough to have the 38 Year Old ‘Stone of Destiny’, named after the legendary coronation stone of the Scottish Kings. It’s full of dark chocolate, dried fruit and a rich finish that rivals many of the high end malts that I’ve had.

IMG_4029.JPG     On a more approachable scale they’ve started producing the Chivas Regal Extra, a Non Age Statement blend designed to recreate the flavors of the original Chivas Regal 25 Year Blend that relies heavily on Olorosso Sherry aging. Then there is the new Mizunara.

The Mizunara is a 12 Year Old blend, but not THE Chivas 12 Year blend, that is finished in Japanese Mizunara Oak. It’s currently a Japanese exclusive but the Chivas Brothers have plans to take it to the global market. Think about that for a moment. Mizunara is some of the most sought after wood in the world right now and Chivas has enough clout and influence to be able to age enough whisky in mizunara casks that their biggest problem with getting into the United States is the difference in bottle sizes between the US and the rest of the world. With all this innovation and history why does it seem to fade into the background of the whiskey drinking consciousness?

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In a way I think their own history is getting in their way. The whiskey nerds and “trend setters” are all fighting to battle for transparency and in depth disclosure of aging and blend components. Just look at John Glasser and how often Compass Box is chastised for disclosing too much information. Finding information on what actually goes into a bottle of Chivas Regal is impossibly frustrating. And while this lack of information might keep that bottle of Chivas from standing out in an increasingly crowded forest, but it doesn’t stop the liquid in the bottle from being of a quality and taste that has earned its iconic place on that back bar.

Whiskey Wednesday: Changing A Pig’s Nose

Consolidation is the name of the game. Every week there is another story of a small or independent distillery being purchased by a bigger player. Most recently Bacardi purchased a minority stake in Teeling Irish Whiskey, Diageo paid nearly a billion dollars for George Clooney’s Casa Migos Tequila, and Pernod Ricard got into the mescal game with Del Maguey. No matter who the players are it always means some sort of change.

It’s not just a story of international conglomerates snapping up fast rising names either. Look at the recent merger of Spencerfield Spirits and Ian Macleod Distillers. Spencerfield was the brain child of Alex Nicol, the former marketing director of Glenmorangie. The company was built on solid, old school blended whiskey labels, like Sheep Dip and Pig’s Nose. They’ve been having explosive success with its Edinburgh Gins, which have become the #1 craft gin in all of Scotland. Alex had close ties with Ian Macleod, the makers of Tamdhu and Glengoyne, sourcing much of the whiskey for the Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip blends and using their bottling facilities for their brands. As Spencerfield grew a more formal partnership seemed inevitable.

Compared to the massive deals mentioned above this merger is still a small player but it’s a great case study in what this kind of deals can yield. The Spencerfield Brands gain more direct, consistent access to primary ingredients for their brands, while also gaining access to a larger distribution and marketing network. Ian Macleod then expects the brands to continue to show an increase in performance to justify the money spent bringing them into the fold. And that means increased sales. Which means grabbing the attention of new consumers. Which means change.

The most dramatic example is Pig’s Nose. The brand was originally started in the 1970’s but was revitalized by Alex Nicol and is proof that good whiskey doesn’t need to be expensive, or carry a massive age statement. It just has to be made with care. Bottled at 80 proof and made up of a blend of 40% single malts to 60% grain whiskey, the Pig’s Nose has a massively high malt content for a “non-craft” blended whiskey. It’s name comes from the whiskey being “as soft as a pig’s nose” and is a great workhorse (or work pig) in the bar world. The whiskey has a subtle fruitiness that lends a extra layer onto the malty, butterscotch middle while the whole dram remains round and soft. It’s a great cocktail backbone while still enjoyable on its own. And on top of that it was always affordable. It’s a phenomenal sleeper, an unassumingly delightful whiskey.

However, its biggest struggle has always been that it is unassuming. The packagingimages.jpg reflected the nature of the whiskey with a mellow, retro 70’s design. Simple. Clean, but not terribly exiting. And that’s where the change is happening to Pig’s Nose. The packaging is being aggressively overhauled to turn a few more heads. Nothing inside the bottle is changing, but with new liter bottles and a label that still looks classic yet undeniably more hip. It may seem like a small change but it is one that will get people to look past the outside to actually try the whiskey on the inside and ends up being the first label change in a long time that I actually enjoy.

These small changes happen with every brand purchase and merger. What the change is varies from brand to brand and company to company but over time they accumulate, slowly altering the brand until it’s no longer what it was. Sometimes, like with Pig’s Nose, it’s a positive face lift. Other times, it’s a slow loss of quality, or of personality that leads to the brands identity completely shifting. It’s an ever evolving world of spirits but by watching these changes we can see where to throw support and where to abandon ship because they tides they are always a’ changin’.

 

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