Life beyond the whisky bubble

It’s a funny sensation when an atmosphere becomes tangible and you feed off others’ energy: the mood is palpably tense, or anticipatory, or enthused and excited.

In some ways that’s been what those of us who lived through whisky’s Bad Old Days™ have experienced. Assembled in sheds and halls around the world, we clustered together nervously and, slowly, more and more excitedly. 

I’ve seen the Tokyo International Bar Show (or TIBS as it’s more commonly known) morph from being an add-on to Whisky Live into a stand-alone event. This year it took the next step into being one of the best of its kind.

At about 3pm on Sunday, you couldn’t move for people tasting, talking, laughing, listening. The buzz was unlike any other similar event. People were (shock) enjoying themselves. 

Old friends from when it was a whisky-only event were still there, but the balance between whisky and other spirits has been addressed. This is a showcase for all spirits, giving lessons on how to navigate, work with and celebrate an entire category. 

There was a hefty Scotch presence – exclusive bottlings from Glenfarclas and Bruichladdich, strong representation from many single malts – but there were as many gins (Japanese and imported), and some rum (Diplomatico’s new range of single still distillates a highlight). 

Japanese whisky, inevitably, had a strong showing. In one corner you had Chichibu unveiling a nine-year-old rum cask, or the ultra-limited bottling aged in casks with new Mizunara heads (one of the more exciting Japanese whisky experiments I’ve tasted since… well… since the same firm’s IPA casks).

Nothing to see: Japan’s whisky shortage has led to the withdrawal of Hibiki 17-year-old

You had Suntory with its Essence limited-edition range, again highlighting its experimental areas, while Gotemba had brought along a cask of its heavy grain. But that was it. A Japanese bar show with a relatively low representation of its own whiskies. No great surprise there. 

Walking the streets of Kyoto the day after the show, I pop into a bottle shop just to see what’s on offer. Force of habit, I suppose, because I know what the answer will be. The Scotch shelves are full, but the Japanese whisky section is decimated. The talk at the show was of Hibiki 17 being withdrawn because of lack of stock. This is the reality.  

If there is a dearth of better-known brands, however, there are unfamiliar names in the devastated fixture – whiskies purportedly from Japan, but containing not a drop of Japanese distilled whisky in them. Blends of Scotch and Canadian bottled here, and, because of the lax (or non-existent) legal framework around Japanese whisky, able to be sold and exported as something which they are not. 

It’s deeply concerning, at this time of rising global interest in Japanese whisky, that its image may become fatally corrupted because of these new arrivals. Legislation is badly needed. The good news is that a working party on regulations is meeting and hopefully we’ll see a set of rules in place by 2020. There will be more on this soon.

In the meantime, the show also demonstrated what was happening on the ground. As well as the single malts, Scotch blends are pushing hard at the still buoyant Highball category, seeing potential stock-related issues on the part of their Japanese competitors.

Matrix of flavour: TIBS attendees were there to explore a range of spirits – not just whisky

There were free samples of White Horse Highballs being handed out (and the 12-year-old to taste), while the Walker stand wasn’t a blinged-up journey into Blue, but loudly proclaimed about the ‘Johnnie Highball’. Blended Scotch knows what it has to do. 

Wandering around the stands (or, to be more precise, trying to fight through the happy boozers), you got the feeling of a modern, coherent industry realising that all spirits are now on the same plane, and that consumers are as happy drinking Ki No Bi gin as a single malt, or a rum cocktail as much as a whisky Highball.

That press of people in the Sunday afternoon was mostly comprised of bartenders and owners on their day off, there to enjoy themselves, but also learn and suss out what is next. 

We live in a whisky bubble; we think of it as being the most important spirit in the world. Because we love, we are protective and loyal, but the reality is that whisky is not alone, it doesn’t have a self-given right to consider itself superior. 

In the minds of those who are serving and drinking, it is just one other element within a matrix of flavour that we all play in. 

Yes, whisky is in a stronger position than it was in the Bad Old Days™ when the bartenders were specialists and the attendees were the geeks who helped save a category, but the world has moved on and we ignore that fact at our peril.

Today we browse our way through a wider world. And celebrate it.