β¨Timing is everythingβ¦
Karuizawa is, today, once of the most important and most historically successful names in Japanese whisky.
π₯ In 2011, After nearly 60 years in business, it was forced to halt production just a couple years before a Japanese whisky was named best in the world, catapulting Japanese single malts into an entirely new stratosphere and creating hundreds of millions of dollars in new value for the category.
π₯ In 2015, the world found out how important the now out-of-production Karuizawa was when it overtook Macallan in the World Malt Whisky Index.
π₯ In 2017, a single Karuizawa bottle sells for $128,000 just four years after it was purchased for $15K, setting a world record.
π₯ In 2021, a local, Shigeru Totsuka, saw an opportunity. He was well funded, and his family had been making sake for 16 generations, so he understood history and heritage. He purchased Karuizawa and brought back the master original Karuizawa master distiller, and rebuilt the distillery in nearly the exact layout as the original, down to sourcing the same water for the barrels.
π₯ In 2022, 20 of the first βtest casksβ were filled, and the story of Karuizawa picked up where it left off.
β¦2 sister casks from that text batch, and the first inaugural 2023 casks β next up, on Rally.