Suntory’s 25-Year-Old Yamazaki Whisky Is Aged Entirely In Rare Japanese Mizunara Oak Barrels

This covetable Japanese whisky is said to possess “complex woodiness of Mizunara oak with bittersweet hints of oriental herbal medicine.”

Suntory’s Yamazaki Distillery has announced a new whisky and a new milestone in one bottle. Yamazaki 25 Years Old Mizunara is the distillery’s first 25-year-old whisky aged entirely in rare Japanese Mizunara oak barrels, and it’s also the oldest Mizunara-only whisky ever produced by the House of Suntory.

This bottle has been a long time coming. Suntory has been producing whisky since its founding in 1923 by Shinjiro Torii. He built the first malt distillery in Japan, and his son later went on to open Hakushu. The distilleries have also been aging whisky in mizunara oak for decades. They introduced it into their warehouses in the 1940s — enough time to learn how to use the notoriously temperamental wood effectively in aging. 

Mizunara is rare, but it can also be difficult to work into well-made barrels. And even when you do manage to build the perfect barrel, there’s the waiting game. According to Suntory, it takes at least a decade of aging to display its unique character of incense, sandalwood, and coconut.  

Suntory has released impressive whiskies influenced by Mizunara in the past. Perhaps the best-known of these is Yamazaki 55 Years Old, which was finished in the Japanese oak species. But 25 years solely in this rare wood is a particularly unique and exciting new drinking experience. It’s entirely possible that this whisky will begin the coining of a new industry term along the lines of “sherry bomb” (used to describe whiskies with a deep sherry character) or that it will more simply become a coveted regional style like the “native oak” releases of Washington state’s Westland Distillery and their Garryana oak series.

Yamazaki 25 Years Old Mizunara is bottled at 48 percent, or 96 proof, which is in a fairly typical range for their whiskies. This is not a place where you’d expect HAZMAT proof points, and this isn’t the sort of whisky you’d want to try and enjoy while your nose hairs begin to singe. Official tasting notes describe a “complex woodiness of Mizunara oak with bittersweet hints of oriental herbal medicine.” It suggests just the spicy, deeply flavorful character one might expect: nutmeg, cardamom, sweetness that is “latte-like” and full of “apricot compote.” In short, Yamazaki 25 Mizunara seems bold, exotic, and full of complex depth.

With an MSRP of $7,500, it’s also a pricey bottle, but a price that matches the rareness of the liquid and the achievement of bottling it in the first place. Will we see older all-Mizunara releases from Yamazaki in the future? Possibly. But I personally suspect that they’ll be a long time coming. Many of the more uncommon oak species need to be used delicately — too much time in flavorful wood can make a whisky feel oversteeped, like a cup of tea that the leaves were left in for too long. To get to a 30-year or 50-year Mizunara release, Suntory may need to re-cask from first-use barrels to second-use. They may have already had to do that to prevent this whisky from getting “too” flavorful. 

For now, this bottle should be high on every whisky lover’s wish list — it’s one of the few experimental bottles on the market today that actually delivers something totally new and different. And after all, getting to experience something new and different is really what whisky is all about.

G. Clay Whittaker is a Maxim contributor covering lifestyle, whiskey, cannabis and travel. His work has also appeared in Bon Appetit, Men’s Journal, Cigar Aficionado, Playboy and Esquire. Subscribe to his newsletter Drinks & Stuff for whisky reviews, perspectives on drinks, and stuff.