Nikka Blended Whiskey 40 °
In 1918, Masataka Taketsuru, son of a family of sake brewers, was recruited by the Settsu Shuzo Company to produce the first authentic Japanese whiskey. With a training in chemistry, the young man decides to leave for Scotland, in order to discover the secrets of the production of whiskey. In 1922, his employer Settsu Shuzo went bankrupt following a stock market accident. Taketsuru then joined the group Kotobukiya, a giant of the beer industry later renamed Suntory, for whom he built the first Japanese distillery in 1924. A few years later, inspired by his wife, he realized his dream of building his own distillery. The northern island of Hokkaido is the place where Taketsuru finds the ideal site for the construction of Yoichi, a distillery built in the purest Scottish tradition. For his first distillery, Masataka Taketsuru was looking for conditions similar to Scotland, where he himself had learned all about the manufacture of whiskey. Yoichi was founded in 1934 Just before the Second World War, Masataka Taketsuru founded the company Dai Nippon Kaju, which means the "big Japanese juice enterprise". Indeed, during the first 8 years, while the alcoholss ripen in oak barrels, a fruit juice activity is set up based on local Hokkaido apples. He finally adopted the name Nikka Whiskey in 1952, a combination of NI-PPON and KA-ju. Its growing success enabled it to establish a second distillery in 1969 on the main island of Honshu. The Miyagikyo distillery was built in 1969, in the heart of the natural environment, from which whiskeys draw their sweetness, elegance and purity. Masataka Taketsuru dies 10 years after the construction of Miyagikyo, at the age of 85 years. He remains forever the founding father of Japanese whiskey, and to this day the spirit of Taketsuru continues to live through Nikka, whose quest for excellence perpetuates memory. He would no doubt be very happy to know that his whiskeys have acquired a great reputation in Europe, the country where it all began.