Scot here - I'm really impressed with Japanese whisky. The Japanese seem to treat creating good whisky (and gin) as an artform - I love their persuit of perfection.
I'm a big fan of Yamazaki 18 year for special occasions (hard to find right now) and the 12 year for an anytime drink.
Hakushu is also great, but I haven't tried their 18/25 aged whiskeys.
Yamazaki 18 won a 'Gold'[1] award five years back through the International Spirits Challenge and has been difficult to find reasonable prices since.
Re:Telling Whiskey from Whisky
by hackbinary on Sunday October 27, 2019 @05:42AM
(#21368710)
Many distilleries are now owned by Japanese. Eg, the Bowmore.
I didn't even know Japan made whisky (whiskey?) until about a month ago when trying a Nikka Yoichi brought to us by a Japanese colleague. We were very impressed. This was easily as tasty as many of the better Scotch single malts. In fact I bet if people wouldn't see the bottle and would be asked what it was the majority would say 'good Scotch' :)