Yamazaki distillery

The Yamazaki 12 Year Old This is the bottle most people mean when they say Japanese single malt, from the country's first and oldest malt distillery, founded by Shinjiro Torii in 1923. It is aged in American, Spanish and Japanese Mizunara oak, and the Mizunara is what you are paying for: a woody, spiced edge over peach, candied orange and vanilla, then ginger and cinnamon on a long finish. It is no bargain, and stock can be patchy, but at 43% it is the benchmark every other bottle here gets measured against. If the 12 is out of reach, the no-age Distiller's Reserve is the cheaper way into the house style.