Whisky - UK (2020-05)

Japanese Whisky Bushido

24 Whisky Magazine | Issue 167

W

ith the huge

boom in interest

in whisky these

days, there has

been an increase

in distilleries and demand. But the

number of distilleries that exist already

are struggling to meet that demand,

especially Japanese distilleries. This has

led to many of the best brands having to

discontinue releases of certain bottlings,

simply for the fact that they don’t have

any more malt left, or it hasn’t matured.

The most notable example

is Hakushu 12 Years Old being

discontinued in 2019. This year we have

also seen more discontinuations, such

as bottle sizes of Shirokaku, Chita single

grain and blended whisky Kakubin.

There is the threat that many more will

come as well.

On the bright side of this, there are

also a number of new Japanese whisky

brands that are introducing new and

exciting malt to the market.

Japanese whisky has always been

known as some of the best, so new

brands coming on board is a really great

chance for us to experience a wider

range of Japanese whiskies.

This is where Bushido Whisky comes

in. They are a recent brand from the

Kumesen Distillery that is churning out

award winning drams.

Andrew Koz, marketing and social

for Bushido Whisky, Aiko Importers

Inc., notes that “Japanese whisky is

a white-hot category. The demand is

extremely high, thus demand swept

all of the shelves of all age statement

Japanese whiskies. And with Japanese

distilleries discontinuing many of their

whiskies, both pure malts as we’ve

seen this month from Nikka, and all age

statement whiskies, we knew that if we

could source tremendous whiskies we

…‘—Ž†β‹ŽŽ–Š‹•‰‹ƒ–Š‘Ž‡‹–Š‡ƒ”‡–Ǥ

And we did just that”.

The Kumesen Distillery was founded

in the Okinawa Islands in 1952. Back

–Š‡ǡ™Š‡–Š‡›β‹”•–•–ƒ”–‡†ǡ–Š‡›™‡”‡

producing Awamori, which is made

from Indica rice and is made exclusively

in Okinawa. They have always been

known as an innovative and forward

thinking distillery, having started to age

their Awamori in oak barrels in 1989.

This created a hybrid kind of spirit

WORDS GREG DILLON

A new Japanese whisky brand, Bushido Whisky is produced in the Kumesen

Distillery and looks like it is about to take the whisky world by storm

These pages from

left to right:

A guide to the series;

The range on offer.

On the rise

that was named Ryukyu Whisky at

the time (the Okinawa Islands are also

known as the Ryukyu Islands). This

‹•™Š‡”‹…‡™Š‹•›™ƒ•”‡ƒŽŽ›β‹”•–

focussed on and Ryukyu whisky was a

leader in the category.

So it is no surprise that the creations

coming out of the Kumesen Distillery

are being hailed as some of the most

exciting on the market. With this in

mind, Aiko Importers have recently

started the Bushido range, which is a

range of grain and single malts that are

very fresh and exciting.

The name derives from Bushido,

which is the code of conduct followed

by the Samurai warriors.

Koz explains that “the distillery

has been making whiskies for the

Japanese market, and never sold to the

US before we came in. We approached

the distillery and bought all of their 23

year old barrels, along with all of their

17 year old barrels that we turned into

‘—”β‹”•––™‘‡†‹–‹‘•‘ˆ–Š‡—•Š‹†‘

Series, with only 3,600 bottles of each

ever made. Once these are gone, they

are never able to return which makes

this project so special because it is an

amazing award-winning whisky, that

once depleted is gone forever. But we

will continue to source and bring to

market the best and rarest whiskies

from Japan.”

The Seven Virtues

With each bottling of the Bushido

Series, the creators are looking to

”‡βŽ‡…–‘‡‘ˆ–Š‡•‡˜‡˜‹”–—‡•‘ˆ

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