What is Authentic Whisky? (Ep. 8)

EPISODE INTRO

In the 8th episode of the Japan Distilled podcast, your hosts Christopher Pellegrini & Stephen Lyman reflect on what defines authentic whisky in Japan and abroad. In this fourth and final part of our series on Japanese whiskies, we ask a few questions that sent us down a rabbit hole of ideas and suggestions that the Japanese whisky industry may never consider, but we enjoyed discussing.

1. What is authentic whisky anyway?
2. Is there terroir in whisky?
3. What makes Japanese whisky Japanese whisky?

HOSTS

CHRISTOPHER PELLEGRINI Vermont born and bred, long-time Tokyo resident and author of The Shochu Handbook, Christopher learned all about delicious fermentations as a brewer at Otter Creek (Middlebury, VT). He now spends most of his waking hours convincing strangers that shochu and awamori are unlike anything they’ve ever tried before. 

STEPHEN LYMAN discovered Japan’s indigenous spirits at an izakaya in New York City. He was so enthralled that he now lives in Japan and works in a tiny craft shochu distillery every autumn. His first book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks, was nominated for a 2020 James Beard Award.

We have been drinking whisky longer than we have been drinking shochu or awamori, though we enjoy all of these spirits a great deal.

If you have any comments or questions about this episode of Japan Distilled, please reach out to Stephen or Christopher via Twitter. We would love to hear from you. 

SHOW NOTES

What is authentic whisky?

There are now 5 predominant whisky producing nations across the globe (listed alphabetically so as not to cause a fuss).

Canada

Ireland

Japan

Scotland

United States

Until April 1, 2021 Japan is/was the only one of these countries in which foreign distilled and even aged whisky could be bottled in Japan and labeled as Japanese whisky. The new JSLMA labeling standards changed that – creating the first standards for Japanese whisky since the Japanese started marketing (let’s not say making since we do not know what was in those bottles) domestic whisky in the late 1800s.

Within those 5 countries, there are several types of authentic whisky made using a variety of processes and ingredients ranging from single malt whisky in Scotland to bourbon or rye in the USA. Some is pot-distilled. Some is column distilled. In most traditions it can only be aged in oak casks.

We share all of this to try to set some common sense boundaries for the question, “What is authentic whisky?” With exception of some fruit or sugar based spirits being called whisky in some other countries not known for their whiskies (read up on Thai whiskey as an example), all of the major producers adhere to these simple rules:

1. made with grains
2. distilled at least twice
3. aged in oak barrels
4. bottled at 40% ABV or higher

While some of these traditions have additional “guardrails” around how they can be made, all 5 of these predominant traditions accept those standards at minimum to defined authentic whisky. Interestingly, the new Japanese standards are the only that allow aging in wood other than oak.

Whisky Terroir?

Terroir is often defined as “sense of place” and when it comes to spirits, this must include the nature of the local ingredients being used, the decisions made about how to make the spirit, and how the spirit is treated after distillation.

A lot of whisky is made from grains grown very far from the distillery so the sense of terroir may be a bit further removed that it would be from, say, Satsuma Shochu, which by law has to be made from sweet potatoes grown within the prefecture of production. However, local grains are increasingly being used, especially for craft whiskies.

Whisky Terroir is certainly not settled science, but it is a fun topic to explore.

What Makes Whisky Japanese?

This really is the crux of the debate that has arisen from the new labeling standards. We decided to ask experts and our listeners before we recorded this episode, but it turns out the experts and audience were pretty well aligned, which made our job a lot easier.

It turned out that a vast majority of our listeners thought Made in Japan was the most important aspect of labeling something as Japanese whisky. Also, interestingly, less than 10% thought that following Scottish malt whisky rules was a key point. For those who commented, several did mention that Made in Japan and Follows Scotch Rules were equally important.

Where did we end up falling? Perhaps this list looks familiar (with 1 addition):

1. made with grains
2. distilled at least twice
3. aged in oak barrels
4. bottled at 40% ABV or higher
5. made in Japan

So where we part with the new standards is that we do not think Japanese whiskies need to use malting for saccharification and we do not think woods other than oak should be allowed (unless oak is also used). Japan has been making alcohol with koji saccharification for over 1,200 years and has been using malted grains to make alcohol for perhaps 150 years. Both extract sugars from grains to allow yeast to do its job (and koji is more efficient).

CREDITS

Theme Song: Begin Anywhere by Tomoko Miyata (http://tomokomiyata.net/)

Mixing and Editing: Rich Pav (https://www.uncannyjapan.com/)

Links

WHISKY RISING by Stefan Van Eycken the definitive guide to Japanese whisky. A veritable encyclopedia of information.

JAPANESE WHISKY by Brian Ashcraft an accessible, well-researched introduction to the best whiskies from Japan.

THE WAY OF WHISKY by Dave Broom an international whisky expert’s journey through Japan.

Nomunication a Japanese Whisky-focused site run by whisky professional Whisky Richard.

Kanpai!