Togouchi Blended Japanese Whisky

The enigma of Togouchi.

Chugoku Jozo was started in 1918 as a distributor of Sake and related traditional Japanese liquors. They specialized in all the stuff that happens after distillation, meaning that they purchased raw, young spirit form distillers and then mixed, aged, bottled, and distributed it for themselves. They followed this same formula when the branched out into other spirits as well.

When Chungoku Jozu decided to add Whisky to their lineup, they started like they always had … by buying from producers who were already making it. And their timing was great. Since America was still reeling from Prohibition and there was a collapse of the Whisky industry around to world, those distilleries were perfectly happy to sell young, unaged Whisky in bulk to the crazy Japanese guys. So, they bought single-malt Whisky from Scotland and fine grain Whisky from Canada and shipped it all back to Japan.

The team at Chungoku Jozu knew what they were doing. They put those oak Sherry casks deep within an abandoned train tunnel and let it sit. So, what we have here is a NAS Whisky that is about 60% Canadian, 40% Scottish, and aged about 8 years in Spanish Sherry casks under ground in Japan. So … what the heck do you call this United Nations of Whisky? Jap-Can-Span-Scotch? Scot-Pan-Span-Ese? Ultimately it doesn’t matter since you will just call it delicious.