Utagawa Hiroshige — the 19th-century ukiyo-e master whose woodblock prints of landscapes and weather made him one of Japan’s most internationally recognised artists — has an unexpected connection to whisky. Sakurao Distillery, based in Hiroshima Prefecture, has produced a limited…
Ichiro’s Malt is among the most sought-after Japanese whisky brands in the world. But while the Chichibu single malts command the most attention from collectors, the World Blended expression occupies a different and interesting position: it blends Chichibu malt with…
Nikka Whisky’s Miyagikyo Distillery, nestled in a mountain valley near Sendai in northern Honshu, produces one of the most distinctive Japanese single malts: floral, fruited, and famously apple-forward. The 2022 vintage expression captures Miyagikyo at a specific moment in its…
Irish whiskey has long been dominated by a handful of large producers. Cooley Distillery, founded in 1987 in County Louth, was the first independently owned Irish whiskey distillery in generations — and its founder, John Teeling, built it deliberately as…
Sakurao Distillery, located in Hatsukaichi near Hiroshima, continues to release new expressions as its whisky matures. Sakurao Shimahei is among the limited bottlings that demonstrate the distillery’s growing ambition — and the quality that Hiroshima’s coastal climate and soft water…
If Royal Centenario 25 represents mastery, Centenario 30 represents a further step into territory that few rums reach: three full decades of tropical maturation in Costa Rica, producing a spirit of extraordinary depth and integration. Rum aged this long in…
Ron Centenario from Costa Rica is not the most famous rum in the world, but among those who know it, it is deeply respected. The 25-year-old expression — Royal Centenario 25 — represents the peak of the range: long-aged, complex,…
Johnnie Walker Blue Label occupies a specific position in the whisky world: it is, arguably, the most recognised premium blended Scotch globally. At any international hotel bar, airport duty-free, or business dinner in Tokyo, Singapore, or New York, Blue Label…
Japanese craft rum continues to expand its vocabulary. Tenjinmura Oriental Rum represents a specific ambition: to make rum that is distinctly, irreducibly Japanese in character — using hoajao (Sichuan pepper, also used in Japanese cuisine) and iyokan citrus (a mandarin…
Iejima Island, off the coast of Okinawa, is known for two things: its wartime history and its sugarcane fields. IE Rum turns the latter into something remarkable — a range of craft rums that uses Okinawan botanical ingredients including karaki…