Did You Know Nikka's Story Did Not Start in Japan?

One of the most renowned whiskies from Japan is Nikka. This Japanese whisky brand has a rich history. Did you know that its story didn't originate in Japan, but in famous Scottish locales?

The tale of Nikka whisky dates back to December 1918. That’s when Taketsuru Masataka started studying chemistry at the University of Glasgow and Royal Technical College.

After studying there for a year, he decided to visit a distillery in Speyside, wanting to learn more than just theory. The Longmorn Distillery then introduced him to the fundamentals of making malt whisky.

He learned how the stills worked, how to clean them, and perhaps most importantly, how to make whisky from grain to glass.

He noted all these lessons in his notebook, though it wasn't as simple at Bo’ness, a grain distillery where he briefly worked. Here he had to surreptitiously jot down his lessons on scraps of paper using a tiny pencil.

When Masataka started dating Rita, a Scottish lady, the two moved to Campbeltown. This was, at the time, an incredibly popular place for whisky production. The young Japanese man began working at Hazelburn Distillery where he learned distilling and blending in just six months.

Here too, he took diligent notes of his discoveries. Everything Masataka wrote ended up in a booklet that would later come to be known as the Taketsuru Notes.

The notes in that booklet would go on to form the foundation of Japanese whisky.

Eventually, Masataka and his wife moved to Japan. He brought his notebook and set about distilling his own whisky. He began in 1923 at Kotobukiya, which is now known as Suntory.

In 1934, he built his own distillery, named Yoichi. It's here that Nikka whisky would ultimately be produced. Over time, this whisky would evolve into the drink we know today.