The House of Suntory-owned Yamazaki, the darling of the whisky world a few years ago before a supply shortage followed by a global pandemic severely curtailed their output, has resurfaced and revealed a limited edition Yamazaki Japanese single malt collection – Tsukuriwake Selection – featuring the four foundations of single malt production, mizunara cask-matured, peated malt, puncheon and Spanish oak cask-matured whiskies.
The new 2022 Yamazaki Limited Edition Tsukuriwake Selection [a Japanese word which means ‘artisanship through a diversity of making’] begins with Yamazaki Puncheon, comprised of malt whiskies aged in American oak puncheons and said to contain notes of acacia honey, butterscotch, green apple, pear and vanilla.
Yamazaki Peated Malt was made using heavily peated malted barley and is said to contain notes of citrus, pineapple and smoke.
Yamazaki Spanish Oak combines malt whiskies matured in oak casks from northern Spain and is said to contain notes of prunes, raisins and sun-dried tomatoes.
Yamazaki Mizunara – the uncontested star of the group – is matured in rare Japanese mizunara oak casks and is said to contain notes of cinnamon, custard and sandalwood.
The 2022 Yamazaki Limited Edition Tsukuriwake Selection were all bottled at 48% alcohol by volume [96 proof] and was originally released in Japan in 2020 and is now being made available in Australia, Austria, China, France, Germany, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan, Thailand, the UK and USA beginning in June 2022 for $450 per bottle – with the exception of the mizunara – which is being made available for $620 per bottle.
