Torii clearly had fine tastes because it was port and other similar imported wines that he specialised in. If you’ve followed the blogs here at GreatDrams, you’ll know I love a good port, especially in the winter, so I can see why this was the tipple he decided to focus on. As well as highlighting the amazing taste, he marketed it as a ‘health tonic’. Remember, this was the 1800s, and it wasn’t uncommon for alcohol to be associated with health and virility. Heck, even marathon runners used to drink champagne during an event, as they believed it improved athletic performance. 

Torii’s Akadama Port was a sweet, fortified wine that customers couldn’t get enough of. His business did very well and demand quickly grew. Ever the business opportunist, Shinjiro was already eying up his next venture, and it was whisky which was on his radar… 

Founding Suntory

As the years passed by, Torii noticed more and more of his fellow countrymen developing a palate for Western products, particularly Scotch whisky. 

Torii had big ambitions when it came to whisky. He didn’t just want to sell a half-decent whisky that came something close to Scotch, he wanted to create a whisky that honoured it, yet rivalled it at the same time. In 1923, his vision came to fruition as he established Japan’s very first whisky distillery, which he named Yamazaki. 

Shinjiro wanted to bring people on board who shared his same passion and visions for whisky. He hired a young and ambitious whisky lover who had spent many years in Scotland studying the art of whisky making, by the name of Masataka Taketsuru. 

Masataka was able to share the wealth of knowledge and advice he’d learned in Scotland, including where best to build the distillery. Taking Masataka’s advice, Torii chose Osaka because of the fresh water supply from the Yodo River, and the fact that it had a climate very similar to that of the Scottish Highlands. Masataka believed this was integral for producing exceptional whisky. 

Production quickly began and in 1929 Torii released the distillery’s first whisky brand, a blended malt which they called ‘Suntory Whisky Shirofuda’ (white label). Upon release, reception was mixed, as the dram, despite being heavily influenced by fruitier Speyside expressions, was too smoky for the Japanese palate. 

In 1934, the distillery released their first single malt, which was simply named ‘Yamazaki’. Made exclusively from Japanese ingredients, and aged in Japanese oak casks, it was softer and mellower than the previous expression, and proved more popular. 

By 1937, the Suntory whisky brand was now well established in Japan and the brand’s next release would be their iconic ‘Kakubin’, which meant ‘square bottle’ (no prizes for guessing the shape of the bottle). This was Suntory’s breakout dram. It had the perfect balance of light, sweet, fruity, oaky, and slightly floral and paired very well with Japanese cuisine. 

This whisky really put the Suntory brand on the map and helped to solidify Suntory as an iconic name in Japanese whisky. It was so popular in fact, that in 1967’s James Bond film ‘You Only Live Twice’ Sean Connery’s iconic Bond character is seen drinking Suntory whisky on-screen.