Mars Shinshu Iwai Tradition Whisky

Mars Shinshu Iwai Tradition is a blended Japanese whisky from Mars Shinshu — Japan’s highest whisky distillery at 2,600+ feet in the Nagano Alps. Named after Kiichiro Iwai, the Mars whisky-making mentor who helped guide Masataka Taketsuru of Nikka, the Iwai range carries forward the lineage of pre-war Japanese whisky pioneers. “Tradition” is the flagship blend in the Iwai lineup.

The Hombo family has been distilling shochu for more than a century and added whisky to their repertoire in 1949 with the help of Kiichiro Iwai. After originally producing in Kagoshima on Kyushu, the Hombo clan moved the distillery in 1984 to Miyada village in southern Nagano Prefecture, chosen for cool temperatures (which slow maturation) and abundant soft granite-filtered, snowmelt-fed water.

Specs

• Distillery: Mars Shinshu, Miyada Village, Nagano, Japan (est. 1949; relocated 1984)
• Style: Japanese Blended Whisky — Iwai Tradition
• Size: 750ml

Browse the full Mars Shinshu collection at Wooden Cork.