Whisky Japan: The Essential Guide to the World’s Most Exotic Whisky

Gourmand World Cookbook Award-winner - Best Spirits Book

Japanese whisky is finally getting the international recognition it deserves. Originally created to emulate the malts of Scotland, Japanese whiskies now hold a distinct and unique place among other world-class spirits. Yet, despite having a history going back nearly a century, and winning many prestigious awards in recent years (including Whisky Magazine's World Whiskies Awards in 2016, 2013, 2011, and 2010, and The Whisky Bible's World Whisky of the Year in 2013), Japanese whiskies have remained enigmatic and exotic.

UntiI now. In WHISKY JAPAN, the most comprehensive book on Japanese whisky ever available in English, renowned expert Dominic Roskrow reveals what makes Japanese whisky so special and sought-after by whisky connoisseurs everywhere. He introduces the companies that make Japanese whisky, and offers detailed portraits of these distilleries, explaining their complex production processes, traditions, and the new innovations that have allowed them to take on and surpass the competition. The reader is carried along on a journey to the very heart of Japanese whisky making, with extensive tasting notes for all the leading expressions, a special selection of rare Japanese treasures, profile interviews with key personalities, and over 500 beautiful photographs and illustrations. Here are the whisky makers, blenders, independent bottlers, retailers, collectors, bloggers, and bartenders. There is a lively guide to the best bars around the world in which to taste Japanese whisky, a section on whisky cocktails and food pairings, and useful travel tips on how to get to the distilleries, where to stay, what to eat, and what else there is to do in the area.

Dominic Roskrow is an award-winning drinks writer and the former editor of Whisky Magazine, The Spirits Business and Whiskeria. He has written eight books on whisky including The World’s Best Whiskies, 1001 Whiskies You Must Taste Before You Die and The Whisky Opus (for which he was nominated for the 2013 Fortnum & Mason Drinks Writer of the Year award), and has contributed to several more, including every edition of The Whisky Yearbook. He specializes in world whisky and whisky from non-traditional whisky-making regions. In 2007 he received the Scotch whisky industry’s highest honor when he was made a Keeper of the Quaich, and in 2010 he was made a Kentucky Colonel, Kentucky’s highest award.