No.8717   2004. 3. 25

Suntory is to standardize names and label notations of
“Yamazaki” and “Hakushu” Whisky
— Standardizing from “Pure Malt” to “Single Malt” —

Suntory Ltd. (Head Office: Osaka, President: Nobutada Saji) is to standardize names and label notations of “Yamazaki” and “Hakushu” whisky to “Suntory Single Malt Whisky Yamazaki” and “Suntory Single Malt Whisky Hakushu” respectively. The change of the labels has been conducted in order of precedence from production units of February 2004 onwards.

Since the first releases, “Yamazaki” and “Hakushu” have been named as “Suntory Pure Malt Whisky Yamazaki” and “Suntory Pure Malt Whisky Hakushu” as they used only pure malt whisky from “Yamazaki Distillery” and “Hakushu Distillery” respectively. To this day, they have been enjoyed by many of our customers. On the other hand, we have found the increasing numbers of “single malt fan” among our customers for the past few years, who enjoy the features’ difference between Scotland and Japanese distilleries. This led Suntory to sell “Yamazaki” and “Hakushu” with their original names as well as labeling “single malt whisky”.

Suntory is to strengthen brands of these two whiskies by standardizing the names and the labels of “Yamazaki” and “Hakushu” to “Single Malt Whisky”, to be enjoyed as “single malt whisky” representing Japan.

“Yamazaki 12 Years” received a gold prize in “International Spirits Challenge 2003 (ISC 2003)” (a prestigious international contest of alcohol beverages) within the whisky category, which became the first to receive for Japanese whisky. To add, “Yamazaki Distillery” and “Hakushu Distillery” were certified by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), which is an association formed by worldwide malt fans and its headquarter is located in Scotland. “Yamazaki Malt” and “Hakushu Malt” have been enjoyed by the malt fans worldwide, gaining attention and recognition for their high quality of malt whisky from overseas.

There is no change in the prices and contents of the products.

•  Products with changes of names and labels (with no change in prices and contents)
Suntory Single Malt Whisky
“Yamazaki 10 Years”, “Yamazaki 12 Years”, “Yamazaki 18 Years”, “Yamazaki 25 Years”
Suntory Single Malt Whisky
“Hakushu 10 Years”, “Hakushu 12 Years”

•  Start of the alteration
Change in order of precedence from production units of February onwards

For enquiry of the information, please contact Suntory Customer Center Toll
free number: 0120-0139-310 (Osaka) Dojimahama 2-1-40, Kita-ku, Osaka, 530-8203,
Japan (Tokyo) Moto-Akasaka 1-2-3, Minato-ku, Tokyo 107-8430, Japan Wine website:
http://www.suntory.co.jp/