Located along the mighty Kuma River in southwest Japan, Ohishi does very well in showcasing a sense of terroir we don't always get to experience in the spirits world. The Kuma, one of Japan’s three fastest flowing rivers is not only known for the purity of its water, but it's irrigation of the surrounding rice fields. Ohishi is made from that very rice, and luckily it is produced by a family that has been making Sake and Shochu for five generations.

At Ohishi, distilling is in stainless steel pot stills. There is stock of old spirit at the distillery, too, and so the whisky in this bottle comprises whisky as young as five years and as old as twenty-five years. Because these whiskies are made from rice and not from malted barley, Japanese legislation will not allow them to be called whisky. Furthermore, because they are aged in either Brandy or Sherry cask, they are no longer legally defined as Sochu.