The 7 Best Japanese Whiskies of All Time, According to Spirits Critics

Japanese whisky has had quite a run. What started as an industry built on admiration for Scotch has long since developed its own identity, producing some of the most sought-after bottles on the planet. The category now spans everything from lightly peated island malts to rare Mizunara-aged collector pieces that sell for thousands of dollars per bottle, and the critical community has taken notice.

The seven whiskies below are ranked using The Daily Pour Critics’ Score, our proprietary metric that aggregates house ratings with scores from the most trusted critics across the internet. Where scores tie, editorial judgment breaks the deadlock. Consider this the definitive shortlist.

7. Kanosuke Single Malt Japanese Whisky

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Komasa Kanosuke Distillery sits in Kagoshima Prefecture and runs three copper pot stills, each with different neck shapes and lyne arm angles, a setup designed to produce a range of spirit characters that can be blended before bottling. This whisky is aged in re-charred American oak that previously held Mellowed Kozuru rice shochu, ex-bourbon barrels and sherry casks. Priced at around $100 and bottled at 48% ABV, it delivers a profile that’s simultaneously rooted in Japanese tradition and experimental.

6. The Yamazaki Single Malt Japanese Whisky Aged 18 Years

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At an average secondary market price of around $1,050, The Yamazaki Single Malt Japanese Whisky Aged 18 Years is the kind of bottle you open on a very specific occasion. Distilled from 100% malted barley and aged 18 years in sherry casks at Japan’s oldest distillery, it arrives at a modest 43% ABV, which might raise eyebrows given the price, but the complexity here is undeniable. The nose offers roasty malt alongside sherried pear and cherry, a pop of tangerine and something that edges toward root beer in the best possible way. On the palate, macadamia and melting butter share space with a big tobacco note, dashi-like umami and ginger spice; it’s a whisky that keeps shifting every time you return to the glass. The finish wanders through a damp forest of dried fruit, vanilla shortbread and char. For a 43% spirit, it’s remarkably present.

5. The Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara 100th Anniversary Suntory Whisky

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Released in May 2023 to mark the House of Suntory’s centennial, The Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara 100th Anniversary Suntory Whisky carries a $1,500 suggested retail price and earns every dollar of it. Aged exclusively in Japanese Mizunara oak and bottled at 96 proof, this is the version of Yamazaki that silences every critic who has ever called the brand thin or underwhelming. Molasses and honey anchor the nose, with baking spice, anise, black tea and sandalwood orbiting around them. The palate delivers a moderate but pleasant texture, and those same black tea and molasses notes hit immediately before giving way to clove, anise and a cola-and-root-beer quality that sounds odd on paper and tastes extraordinary in the glass. The finish is long and exceptionally well balanced, the kind of ending that makes you set the glass down slowly. Mizunara is notoriously difficult to work with, and Suntory has made it look effortless.

4. The Shin Japanese Malt Whisky Mizunara Oak Finish

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The Shin Japanese Malt Whisky Mizunara Oak Finish comes from Shinobu Distillery in Niigata Prefecture, a region known for its cold climate and exceptionally soft water, and it’s finished in the same Mizunara oak that makes the Yamazaki anniversary release so compelling. What sets it apart from everything above it on this list is the price: it’s around $60, making it one of the most overachieving bottles in the entire Japanese whisky category. Bottled at 48% ABV with no age statement, it’s a well balanced expression. Mizunara imparts a distinctive incense-like, almost sandalwood-and-coconut character that no other wood quite replicates, and Shinobu has managed to coax that quality out of a whisky that most people can actually afford to buy.

3. The Akkeshi Single Malt Japanese Whisky Peated 2023

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Akkeshi Distillery operates on the eastern coast of Hokkaido, in a coastal town that boasts of a climatic resemblance to Islay, and The Akkeshi Single Malt Japanese Whisky Peated 2023 leans into that geography. The 10th release in Akkeshi’s 24 Sekki series, it uses both sourced and locally grown Hokkaido barley, double distilled in Forsythe copper pot stills and aged in a combination of Hokkaido Mizunara oak, ex-bourbon, ex-sherry and ex-red wine casks. Non-chill filtered and bottled at a robust 55% ABV, it delivers a peated profile that feels distinctly Japanese rather than a scotch imitation. The Mizunara and red wine cask influence pulls the smoke in unexpected directions, adding a woody incense quality and a dark fruit sweetness that keeps things from ever feeling one-dimensional. This is peated whisky with a point of view.

2. The Last Drop No. 39: 22 Year Old Japanese Blended Malt Whisky

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Only 319 bottles of The Last Drop No. 39: 22 Year Old Japanese Blended Malt Whisky exist in the world, each priced at $5,500. That number is either absurd or entirely reasonable depending on what’s in the glass, and in this case the argument for reasonable is surprisingly strong. Bottled by Sazerac’s The Last Drop at 118.2 proof, this is a blend from two Mizunara oak casks, one of which contains liquid from Hanyu Distillery, shuttered since 2004 and now producing some of the rarest whisky on the planet. The nose is a slow-motion reveal: butterscotch, red bean paste, kiwi, cotton candy and smoked wood in a combination that shouldn’t work and absolutely does. On the palate, tropical fruit mingles with leather, white pepper, cinnamon and smoke before a finish that stretches on through plum, truffle, melted butter, yuzu and white peach. It’s a whisky that makes you acutely aware of how little time is left in the bottle.

1. Hibiki 21 Year

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With a 96 from our critics, Hibiki 21 Year sits at the top of this list, and it does so not because of rarity or spectacle but because of what it represents: the Japanese blended whisky format operating at its absolute ceiling. Produced by Suntory and combining single malts from Hakushu and Yamazaki with Chita grain whisky, all aged a minimum of 21 years in American, European and Japanese wood, it arrives at 43% ABV in that iconic 24-faceted bottle (one facet for each season in the Japanese calendar, if you want to feel cultured about it). The blend is a masterclass in restraint and integration, with no single component overwhelming the others. Where the Yamazaki 18 Mizunara is a bold, declarative statement and The Last Drop No. 39 is a rare artifact, Hibiki 21 is the whisky you return to. It’s priced well into the $200-plus range and increasingly difficult to find, but it rewards patience. Every sip is a reminder of why this category earned its global reputation in the first place.

Japanese whisky has no shortage of overpriced disappointments, but the eight bottles above are not among them. The critics’ scores don’t lie, and neither does the range on display here, from a $70 rice whisky out of Okinawa to a $5,500 Hanyu relic. The category has never been more exciting, or more worth exploring.