In 1923, Shinjiro Torii envisioned a whisky filled with the essence of Japanese nature and hand-crafted by artisans through a patient process of enhancing the work of nature. He dreamt of creating subtle, refined, yet complex whisky that would suit the delicate palate of the Japanese and enhance their dining experience. Inspired by traditional Scottish whisky, Torii envisioned a Japanese approach by choosing a terrain and climate completely different from those of Scotland. Torii chose the region of Yamazaki, Kyoto as the birthplace of Japanese whisky.

The journey was not smooth and the first release of Japanese Whisky in 1929 was not widely accepted. Torii went back to the drawing board with the critique he received and in 1937 released Suntory Kakubin. Today, Kakubin is the biggest selling Whisky in Japan. Since then the family have expanded their distilleries and released a range of sublime Japanese Whiskies, now enjoyed the world over.

Suntory artisans, through painstaking trial and error, have learned that the wood, size, shape, and types of casks transform the taste of their malt whiskies. They have come to utilize basically three different cask woods and a variety of sizes and shapes to enable a wide range of flavour and aroma profiles in their malt whiskies. They are world-renowned as the first artisans to create casks using Mizunara, or Japanese oak, there by adding an oriental note to their whiskies.