A blended whisky from Japan's new Hatozaki distillery: while the in-house whisky will be aged for a while, the blend is created from the company's own cask stocks, which include up to 12-year-old whiskies from North America, Scotland and Japan.

Most Japanese whiskies that are not from large companies like Nikka or Suntory have their origins in traditional sake breweries. Such is the case with Hatozaki Whisky, which is produced at Akashi-Tai's Kaikyo Distillery, which began operations on the brewery's premises in 2017. In the same year, they distilled the first drops in the Scottish-built pot stills, which will be released as a signature single malt starting in 2022. This makes it obvious that the Hatozaki blended whisky launched in 2019 is not from the company's own distillery. In an interview, owner Kimio Yonezawa revealed that the majority of the whisky's ingredients come from cask stocks sourced from Scotland and the United States. A small proportion of Japanese whiskies is also present, but in Japan it is very atypical for a whisky distillery to rely on distillates from "the competition." The Hatozaki Blended Whisky is thus not a Japanese Whisky through and through, but interesting in that it combines grain spirits from three renowned whisky nations in one bottle. It also provides a good opportunity to get to know the newly launched brand and be convinced of the team's whisky expertise. The blend has a single malt content of at least 40% and contains whiskies that have been allowed to rest for up to 12 years. The flavor profile is slightly sweet, cereal, malty and fruity.