No.9121   2005. 5. 11

Suntory Introduces
YAMAZAKI Single Malt 50-Year-Old Whisky
- Single malt whisky made from the most carefully selected Mizunara cask key malt distilled in the early 1950s -

Suntory Limited announces a limited 50-bottle edition YAMAZAKI single malt whisky aged more than 50 years and vatted from an extremely rare, slowly aged, mature key malt, meticulously selected from among Suntory’s cache of whisky malts.

Single malt whisky vatted from key malt allowed to age for more than 50 years is quite difficult to find anywhere in the world, and the price tag of one million yen (tax not included) per bottle for YAMAZAKI Single Malt 50-Year Old Whisky reflects this scarcity, making it the highest priced single malt whisky in Japan.
Crafted from Japanese malted barley at the Yamazaki distillery more than 50 years ago in the early 1950s, the key malt that forms the base spirit for this whisky was prepared with Yamazaki's signature water, fermented, and then distilled in first edition Japanese pot stills. This Yamazaki distillery malt was then transferred to a Mizunara cask and left to mature quietly for more than half a century. Aged in Mizunara, the most Japanese of wooden casks, this old spirit with its one-of-a-kind elegant aroma of eaglewood is extremely highly valued. Crafted from key malt vatted in such rare casks, YAMAZAKI Single Malt 50-Year Old Whisky is Japan’s most highly aged liquor.

•Features
YAMAZAKI Single Malt 50-Year Old Whisky takes its amber color and deep red highlights from the particular characteristic of the Mizunara cask. The bouquet features a richly sweet and mature fragrance with a hint of the sweet-sour aroma of dried fruit set against a striking perfume that suggests the aromatic eaglewood tree. The deep, dry whisky has a full-bodied, yet mellow taste – smooth and strong, like silk. Its most striking features are a lingering aftertaste, a slightly smoky fragrance, and mild woodiness.

•Packaging
Lovingly handcrafted, each top-quality crystal bottle features the YAMAZAKI name sandblasted in flowing cursive letters. The mouth of the bottle is wrapped in Japanese washi paper, tied with a gold cord, and placed in a specially crafted oak box.

<Mizunara Cask Key Malt>
Suntory’s history of distilling whisky began when Shinjiro Torii, the founder of Suntory, built the Yamazaki Distillery in 1923. A first-generation master blender, Shinjiro aged the first whiskies created in Japan, mainly using Spanish sherry casks for the first 20 or so years.
With the outbreak of World War II, however, these casks were no longer easily imported from Spain, and whisky storage shifted to casks specially crafted of Japanese Mizunara wood by Suntory for 20 or more years during and after the war. Containing little tylose, Mizunara from Hokkaido and Tohoku is more prone to leaks and less pliable, characteristics which caused the craftsmen of the time a great deal of trouble. The original Mizunara casks imparted a powerful and distinctive aroma and taste to key malts stored in them, and whisky made in this manner was consumed at a comparatively young age. In the 1980s, however, whisky blenders discovered that key malt aged over long periods of time in these Mizunara casks matured into highly aromatic spirits that recalled the woody fragrance of eaglewood. In 1989, second-generation master blender Keizo Saji created Hibiki, the ultimate Suntory blended whisky, from Mizunara cask malt, and this key malt has been essential in crafting Suntory’s premium whiskies ever since. Whisky connoisseurs around the world have come to love the distinctive characteristics of Japanese whisky – namely a taste and aroma not found in Scotch – that comes from the Mizunara cask key malt.

Tylose is a component that seals sap vessels. Less tylose makes for lighter wood.

— Details —

▼ Product Name
Suntory YAMAZAKI Single Malt 50-Year Old Whisky

▼ Volume, Suggested Retail Price (tax not included)
700 ml 1,000,000 yen

*The suggested retail price is not binding. Retailers are free to set their own price.
*The alcohol content for whisky cannot be determined until the liquor is released from the cask. This information will be released in the first half of June when the whisky is bottled.

▼ Number of Bottles Sold
We are sorry that all 50 Limited edition bottles have sold out.

▼ YAMAZAKI website(Japanese Language only)
http://suntory.jp/YAMAZAKI/

▽ Further information:
　Suntory Ltd.
　(Osaka) TEL: 06-6346-0835
　Dojimahama 2-1-40, Kita-ku, Osaka, 530-8203, Japan
　(Tokyo) TEL: 03-5579-1150
　Daiba 2-3-3, Minato-ku, Tokyo 135-8631, Japan
　Suntory HP:http://www.suntory.co.jp/