Whisky Shop

Suntory are one of the founding fathers of Japanese whisky, established by Shinjirō Torii in 1899 as a wine store in Osaka. The venture was hugely successful, and the company was renamed Kotobukiya in 1921, which built its first distillery three years later, Yamazaki. The distillery produced both malt and grain whiskies which the company blended together, releasing its first Suntory White Label in 1929, the resulting popularity of which saw the firm renamed after it 1963. Expansion in the next decade saw the company move its grain production to a new Chita distillery in 1972, and open a second malt distillery, Hakushu, the following year. Suntory today has a large stake in both the bourbon and Scotch whisky industry, but remains at the forefront of its native whisky market too.

This is a 2020 addition to The Essence of Suntory Whisky series, and a first for Suntory. This was distilled at the Osumi distillery in Kagoshima, which Suntory have owned since 2014. The plant primarily distils shochu under The Osumi brand, but has also produced this malt-based \"rice whisky\" (note that traditional rice whisky in Japan is made using koji).