A legend of the whisky world, the Karuizawa distillery was opened in 1955 in Miyota, Japan, rather near the active volcano Mount Asama. The distillery housed four small stills and imported Golden Promise barley from Scotland to create their whisky, which was then often aged in Sherry casks. Sadly, the distillery was mothballed in 2001, with their stocks of slowly trickling out to market, where the bottles have become quite the collector's item for whisky enthusiasts. In 2011, the UK-based company Number One Drinks purchased the remaining stocks of Karuizawa’s whisky. When encountering Karuizawa whisky in the wild, we recommend whispering to yourself "Precious, precious Karuizawa..."