A long time contributor to the blog has advised of a story coming out of Japan about further discontinuations of popular Japanese Whiskies from both Nikka and Suntory.
I haven’t heard anything about a confirmed date. On the Nikka side this would be especially strange in regards to the Coffey Malt/Grain bottling’s. From what I have read the Coffey Grain was released in the US in 2013 and the Coffey Malt as recently as 2016. In many circles these are well regarded expressions from Nikka and some of the most readily available from that Whisky House. The US is a huge market and dropping those would surely have to hit the bottom line as well as market confidence!
The Nikka Premium Blend 12 YO is maybe not as well known, but it has reasonable availability outside of Japan and I personally prefer it to the old Taketsuru 12YO. In Japan, that bottling is around US$50 and along with the classy packaging, a reasonably priced and highly drinkable souvenir if you happened to buy one there.
The Kakubin White Label is less problematic unless you live in Japan. There are currently 3 colored labels of Kakubin in Japan(Yellow, White, Black) and if I remember rightly, also sold in at least one other Asian country I know, Taiwan. So unless you have access to the White Label and you prefer it to the other labels, then it won’t effect you. The Yellow Label is the most famous and this is the one that can be also be found in Highball cans in vending machines and mini marts all across Japan. The Yellow Label is also sold in many of the larger markets internationally. I can say that in Australia our biggest discount liquor retailer has been out of stock of Yellow Label for months, could be up to 6. That is of greater concern to me as it really is a classic for making Highballs.
There was still ‘Kaku’ Yellow Label easily available in either bottles or cans when I was in Tokyo last November. Could well be it is being distributed ad hoc to carefully targeted markets while making sure there is continued distribution in Japan? Apparently the 450ml Yellow Label is being suspended in Japan. Not sure what the reasoning is behind that particular move by Suntory.
The fun and games and bad news continue!
I visited Miyagikyo just a couple weeks ago and there indeed was no 12 year blend offering available only its successor the NAS “Tailored.” I did however pick up a small bottle (180ml) of “2000s” which is a blend of single malt barrels from 2000 to 2009 so at the very least 10 years old and also a 50th anniversary bottle of blended Miyagikyo which I have no idea what it will taste like but at 3,300 yen I couldn’t pass up the opportunity.
Finally I decided to try out Nikka Black Deep Blend with the “new oak barrel” taste and as a daily dram + highball I enjoyed it very much (45% not watered down) and at only 1,900 yen I was very happy. Dan Murpheys priced it at $250 for the gift set (thats 1000% RRP!!)
… Maybe I should buy that 12 year hakushu before that gets discontinued too!
Man… any more Japanese whisky left??? No wonder I saw price jumped on Nikka 12 on Amazon.jp and immediately thought it might be gone soon… this confirms it!!
The Nikka 12 was never released in the US. What’s odd was that I noticed last time I was in Japan, in October, Nikka changed the packaging over from their wide heavy cardboard gift-box version of the Nikka 12 with the satin interior, to a cheap paper-thin narrow box version. I still thought they were releasing it, but decided that they more expensive cardboard packaging was unnecessary (and probably expensive). So I grabbed a couple of the heavy cardboard gift box versions to take back to the US. I guess they were actually phasing it out, starting with the packaging.
We do have the Coffey Grain and Malt here in the US. It’s in ample supply at places like Costco, so I’m wondering if this is going to be like the Hakushu 12, where they limit distribution to a few select countries?