About

I'm came to my love of bourbon over time. Growing up in the South Eastern United States, bourbon was always a popular spirit. The first liquor to touch my lips was Wild Turkey 101.

Tokyo is considered one of the best places to purchase bourbon in the world. Four Roses, is owned by Kirrin, a Japanese company. Jim Beam is owned by Suntory, another Japanese company. Blanton's and Ancient Age are made for Age International, a subsidiary of Takara Suzo. Heaven Hill, according to a tour guide, saves many of its more aged bourbon especially for the Japanese market. Kentucky Bourbon Distillers, bottlers of Willet and Black Maple Hill among others, has a few labels only sold within Japan. This is all to say that there is a wide selection of high quality bourbon that is not available within the United States.

I imagine that many people, as I am, are interested in purchasing bourbon when visiting or living in Japan. Nevertheless, there is very little information available in English about export only labels. This blog will serve as a repository for the information that I discover as I explore Tokyo in search of great bourbon and provide information to other bourbon lovers that live or visit Tokyo.

While many Japanese distillers produce world class whiskys (e.g., Hibiki, the whisky made famous by;Lost in Translation), this blog will exclusively focus on bourbon and Tennessee whiskey. There are already many great resources that focus on Japanese whisky such as Nonjatte.