Hi Stefan! We’ve been great admirers of your work and have benefited tremendously from your generosity in covering the Japanese whisky scene for many years – so this is certainly a real treat for us, a big thank you for doing this interview with us.

While you’re known in the whisky scene for being something of an astute observer (almost a documentarian even) of Japanese whiskies, many forget that you’re first and foremost a composer and educator, with works such as Hotel Palenque, 1973 and Landscape with Absent Figures (String Quartet No. 1).

Nonetheless your accolades in the realm of Japanese whiskies are still worth mentioning, from having been chief editor of Nonjatta, the reference point for Japanese whiskies, to authoring Whisky Rising, a true pioneer in capturing the zeitgeist of Japanese whiskies as they began to take off, as well as regularly contributing to Whisky Magazine, and of course (the real topic of today’s interview) having created one of the most sought after, ambitious and exciting series of independently bottle Japanese whiskies – the Ghost Series.

Lead Image: Stefan standing amongst barrels of traditional balsamic at a acetaia in Reggio Emilia (in Italy) - yet another passion of his.

 

So, let’s get started!

 

Check Out The Ghost Series: Facebook | Nonjatta Blog

Stefan's Book: Whisky Rising on Amazon 

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88B: A quick Google search of your name consistently gives us preambles written by fans of your work (we just did above), your whisky peers, colleagues in the music scene, - as a person whose done good work in many different areas, your introduction has inevitably always been written for you.

Yet, as a man whose led many lives, we’d like to offer you back the pen, for you to write your own introduction for once. How would you Stefan van Eycken, like to describe yourself?

Stefan: I’m originally from Belgium but spent time living in Scotland before I moved to Japan in 2000.

The move had nothing to do with either whisky or with a deep interest in some aspect of Japanese culture, so I have no riveting tales there… I was doing postgraduate studies (and teaching) at the University of Edinburgh (Faculty of Music) and then got a fellowship from the Japan Foundation to study contemporary Japanese music for a year. These fellowships were aimed at more senior academics, but I decided to apply anyway and got lucky, I guess. So I moved to Japan in the fall of 2000 and, to make a long story short, I am still here and this is home now for me. 

On the whisky front, I started being publicly active in early 2012. Of course, I had been a whisky enthusiast for many years prior (in fact, since my late teens – and I would visit distilleries all over Scotland way back in the early 1990s when whisky tourism wasn’t a thing yet), but it was in 2012 that I started a blog called ‘Tokyo Whisky Hub’.

 

An early review of Nikka Whisky Malt 100 Hakata on TokyoWhiskyHub. 

 

"I noticed that there was very little news about what was happening on the Japanese whisky front available in English."

 

I noticed that there was very little news about what was happening on the Japanese whisky front available in English. Japanese whisky enthusiasts were blogging and writing on forums, of course, but that was all in Japanese (and as most people who have visited Japan will know, a facility with languages is not a national forte). One exception was Nonjatta, which had been started by Chris Bunting a few years earlier, but he came at the blogging enterprise more from a journalistic angle, whereas I came at it from the angle of a hard-core enthusiast who was doing all that research and digging and visiting distilleries and bars anyway, as part of my passion for the amber nectar. So, all I was doing, really, was sharing what I found, in words, with people who were interested.

Early on, Chris persuaded me that – rather than having two blogs running in parallel – it would be better if there was one strong web resource on Japanese whisky, and so I stopped Tokyo Whisky Hub and moved my work to Nonjatta. Very soon after I did so, Chris had to move back to the U.K. for personal reasons, and I took over the day-to-day running of Nonjatta. We had always wanted to make Nonjatta a team effort with several people writing, and for a while we did have one or two other people contribute occasionally, but the truth of the matter was that, between work commitments and family life, very few people were able to find the time to write for free. There weren’t even any perks  - because such was (and still is) the climate in Japan: no free samples, no invites to special events, no expenses paid trips, etc.

 

A final farewell from Nonjatta - till this day a key resource for Japanese whisky lovers.

 

Our only goal at Nonjatta was increasing enthusiasm for Japanese whisky. In the beginning, we would be alerting people to upcoming releases and we would be reviewing the latest bottlings – all from our own stock, purchased with our hard-earned money from our day jobs outside the field of whisky – but as Japanese whisky grew in popularity (and as prices started going up and as it was harder to get hold of bottles) we were in fact reaching a situation whereby, with every heads-up we were giving of an imminent release, we were making it exponentially harder for ourselves to actually get the bottles and review them. So it became somewhat of a doomed enterprise, blogging about Japanese whisky.

In 2016, I threw in the towel, because that was when I finally let myself be persuaded to write a book on Japanese whisky. I had always refused when publishers came to me, because between my day-job in education and family life, it wasn’t easy to find the time.

 

"paradoxically, print being inherently more authoritative and prestigious"

 

 

And then out came the most authoritative work on Japanese whiskies by Stefan. NOTE: The Second Edition updated with all of Japan's newest distilleries up till November 2022 is out on Amazon!

 

What happened though was that Nonjatta was being used as a resource, including by professional writers (who, unlike us, were getting paid for their writing) and, paradoxically, print being inherently more authoritative and prestigious, it maintained this image of the pros being the authorities and we bloggers being the amateurs. I had been writing for various publications (Whisky Magazine, the Malt Whisky Yearbook, etc.) and felt it was better, going forward, to concentrate my efforts on paid writing. As a blogger, I would travel to a distillery, pay everything out of my own pocket and then write about it for free. As a paid writer, most of the time, my travel expenses weren’t covered either, but at least I was getting paid for my writing, which made the whole thing a zero-sum exercise (which still isn’t ideal, but it’s better than losing money, as my family will agree). The downside is that paid writing tends to be published in magazines and/or books that consumers have to purchase to read, so the reach is much smaller than a free blog, but such is life.

So, that is a nutshell, how I came to live a double-life in music and education on the one hand, and whisky on the other hand, as the years went by.

  

A long gone Karuizawa. (Image Source: Tokyo Whisky Hub)

 

88B: You’ve mentioned that in when you first got to Japan, you weren’t even aware that Japan had produced its own whisky and amidst your travels, you’d chance upon distilleries that were ghost towns.

Do you recall the moment you tasted Japanese whisky that made you fall in love with the category? What was the whisky you had tasted?

Stefan: I remember that it was in Karuizawa. I had gone there with my girlfriend (now wife) for a little weekend escape from Tokyo and we went to the Mercian Museum of Art. You can imagine my surprise when I got there and found out that there was a distillery – and a distillery shop! – right next to it.

I remember that there were so many vintages available by the bottle at the distillery shop. Unfortunately, my disposable income in those days was pretty meagre so I was somewhat limited in my options, but I did buy an early 80's single cask bottling (among others) on that first visit and remember being stunned.

 

Karuizawa's fabled rouge cask. (Image Source: Tokyo Whisky Hub)

 

"You can imagine my surprise when I got there and found out that there was a distillery – and a distillery shop! – right next to it... but I did buy an early 80's single cask bottling (among others) on that first visit and remember being stunned."

 

After that first visit, I went back regularly – I even have home videos (from the days when you still had to use a camcorder) when my oldest son was just a toddler shot in the Karuizawa distillery shop. At the time, it was to capture him, but now those particular videos intrigue me for what is in the background – all the bottles and the ridiculous prices (ridiculous from the perspective of the present-day, not at the time). If I had rented a van and bought the entire distillery shop stock up, I could have retired long ago. 

I have to say that in those days, being unaware of the hype to come, I treated those whiskies the way whisky should be treated: I just opened the bottles without a moment’s hesitation and enjoyed them at home or with friends. I did this for the Karuizawas I bought over the years at the distillery shop, for the Ichiro’s Cards which I bought when they came out, etc Of course, it was easier in those days. Now that is becoming harder to do, with prices having reached astronomic heights and the concomitant commodification of “collectable whisky”.

 

Vignettes of Karuizawa by Stefan. (Image Source: Tokyo Whisky Hub)

 

88B: You’ve well documented your love for Karuizawa’s whiskies – a storied distillery with many unique expressions (everything from Rouge Casks to time-stacked expressions, etc) that is unfortunately today largely out of reach of new drinkers, and certainly very costly to traverse the spectrum of what its whiskies has to offer.

What’s a particular expression that stands out to you as unique? Which vintage are you particularly fond of? And lastly, which vintage has been the biggest headscratcher?

Stefan: I have been fortunate to have tried lots of Karuizawa whiskies – including most of the oldest vintages from the early 60s. The one that stands out for me is the 1964 single cask bottled for Wealth Solutions, Poland. A sublime whisky with that signature sudachi note that I love in very old Karuizawas.

 

A particularly striking Karuizawa - 1964 Single Cask for Wealth Solutions, Poland. (Image Source: Nonjatta)

 

In terms of vintages I am fond of: of course, the Golden Age (first half of the 1980s) stands out, but I am also fond of the 1995 Rouge Cask expressions. Those were available at the distillery shop, and initially, the first few times I was visiting, I didn’t pay attention to them, because I thought they were wines. They had been bottled in tall bottles of the sort used for wines, and were lying in a basket – as if they were discount items – priced at 4,000 yen a bottle. (I know!) It was only after I saw the abv (usually in the high 60s) that I realized these weren’t wines, but whiskies.

As to the last question, I wouldn’t say “headscratcher” but I am not a big fan of the 1999 and 2000 vintages. Of course, part of that may be that they hadn’t been aged for very long when I tried many specimens from that vintage – that they needed more time in wood. But I couldn’t shake off the impression that something had changed with regards to the distillation regime during those two final years of production.

  

88B: As a result of your fondness for Karuizawa, you’ve visited the distillery’s site many times, what’s something that few people know about the whisky or the distillery?

Stefan: How hands-on everything was… from start to finish. Of course, the distillery had been mothballed since 2000, so I never saw the distillery in action. But I do remember – on one of my visits – looking into a warehouse and seeing one of the distillery workers hand-bottle whiskies for the distillery shop. They would just take a bit from a cask from a particular vintage, handbottle it using a funnel and then wax-seal it. And those would go straight to the shop. And when stock of a particular vintage got low, they would tap into the same cask or another cask and bottle some more.

 

An OB Karuizawa Bottling. (Image Source: Whisky Auctioneer)

 

"They would just take a bit from a cask from a particular vintage, handbottle it using a funnel and then wax-seal it. And those would go straight to the shop. And when stock of a particular vintage got low, they would tap into the same cask or another cask and bottle some more."

 

Other than that, something that few people realize is how foul the Karuizawa new-make was. I had the “pleasure” of tasting it, courtesy of the last “malt master” of the distillery, Uchibori-san, and it was awful (chemical, bubble-gummy). But after 3 or 4 decades in wood, this turned into something of an unbelievable complexity – and yes, beauty. It’s hard to recreate that, nowadays, since everybody aims for new-make that is supremely drinkable.

 

88B: Some of your earliest bottlings were the result of a collaboration of sorts with Number One Drinks which is of course known for their prescience in having taken over stocks of some of the most sought after Japanese whiskies today, ranging from Karuizawa to Kawasaki.

What was it like being able to get into their Tokyo office and have a peek at their treasure trove of an inventory and being able to pick out whiskies from a range of their samples?

Stefan: Well, actually, this goes to the heart of how the Ghost Series came to be.

  

As I mentioned, I was alerting whisky enthusiasts to upcoming releases of Japanese whisky on Nonjatta. One of those blog alerts was for a bottling released in late 2012 by Number One Drinks in Japan. Unwittingly, because of my post, the bottling sold out in a flash – which may not have been what Whisk-e/Number One Drinks had wanted. They probably wanted the bottling to be “visible” a bit longer. I had gotten to know David Croll, founder of Whisk-e and co-founder of Number One Drinks, a few months earlier and he reached out to me with the idea of doing a bottling of Karuizawa specially for Nonjatta readers. Needless to say, he didn’t have to twist my arm.

And so, in early 2013 (if memory serves me right) I was invited to a tasting of around 50 Karuizawa cask samples at the Whisk-e headquarters, to pick a cask. I was aware, of course, that by that time, the bulk of the stock had been divided between Number One Drinks’ key partners in the U.K., France and Taiwan, and that this represented “the leftovers”, but I discovered that there were some gems that had been overlooked. In the end, for that bottling for Nonjatta, I settled on two candidate samples: one from 1996 that was very gentle, and very un-Karuizawa like (not big, bold and brash), and another from 1997 that was very rough and funky. I liked both of these samples, but I was worried the latter would be “too much” for most people. Also, the outturn of the latter was much higher, and never having done this before, I was worried if – just with the Nonjatta readership – I could actually move several hundred bottles of this whisky. In the end, I went for the 1996 (cask #3681), which had a much more manageable outturn (140 bottles).

 

What became Ghost #1.

 

It still took a while to sell, hard as it is to image nowadays, and I remember checking daily whether the Whisk-e website that was handling sales was displaying “sold out” next to that bottling. I was relieved when it finally did! (For those who are keen to know what happened to the other sample I liked, that was selected by Isetan Shinjuku and bottled for them shortly after – cask #7815.)

  

88B: Now let’s get into the Ghost Series, which prominently features the final woodblock prints from Japan’s last ukiyo-e woodblock master, Yoshitoshi’s “New Forms Of 36 Ghosts”. To kick things off, what made you decide to create this series?

Tell us a little bit more about the discussions, thoughts and considerations behind its creation? Also, what made you specifically choose Yoshitoshi’s “New Forms of 36 Ghosts” woodblock prints for the labels?

 

A collection of rare and unique Japanese whiskies that don the visually stunning prints from Japan's last ukiyo-e woodblock print master, Yoshitoshi's final works in the collection "New Forms of 36 Ghosts". (Image Source: The Ghost Series)

  

Stefan: When I was invited to do a bottling for Nonjatta readers, what worried me was not the quality of the liquid (I knew the quality would be there) but how to present this bottling. I spent many weeks contemplating possible label designs but wasn’t happy with the various things I came up with. At the end of my tether, I decided to revisit an idea I had had a few years earlier. I had actually done two bottlings of Eigashima (a 5 Year Old and a 12 Year Old) in 2010 (I think I was the second one to do a private bottling of Eigashima; the great Horigami-san of Zoetrope having been the first.) For those two bottlings, I had used snippets from Yoshitoshi’s “100 Aspects of the Moon”. So I thought: why not feature a Yoshitoshi print more prominently on the new Karuizawa bottling I was working on?

 

Two earlier Eigashima's bottled for Nonjatta featuring Yoshitoshi's "100 Aspects of the Moon". (Image Source: Nonjatta)

 

"At the end of my tether, I decided to revisit an idea I had had a few years earlier...why not feature a Yoshitoshi print more prominently on the new Karuizawa bottling I was working on?"

 

One thought I had, after all that head scratching trying to find a good concept for a label, was that – if I ended up doing another bottling in the future – I didn’t want to find myself in the same position. And so, obviously, the best way was to go for something I could tap into: a unified concept, a series… I had always loved Yoshitoshi’s “New Forms of 36 Ghosts” and felt it was perfect on many levels: 1) the resonance between “spirits” and whisky being a spirit, 2) the fact these aren’t just “pretty prints” (thought visually they are stunning, of course) but they come with intriguing stories; 3) the possibility of finding a resonance between the print and the liquid (because that was something that bothered me sometimes with “pretty ukiyoe prints” being used to sell Japanese whisky – and even non-Japanese whisky – that there wasn’t any sort of connection between the artwork and the liquid).

Part of me also felt that if I made a one-off label for this Karuizawa bottling, it would remain a one-off thing and that would be it. But I was having so much fun doing this that part of me wanted to do more bottlings, and so I thought: if I go into this with the hope it might become a small series, and set it up with the possibility of having follow-up bottlings, then it actually might happen. I didn’t want to pursue the “100 Aspects of the Moon” series because 100 seemed like a very tall order – even at the time – but 36 seemed within the realm of the possible.

  

The full series of Yoshitoshi's "New Forms of 36 Ghosts". (Image Source: The Value) 

 

88B: You’ve mentioned that when selecting which woodblock print from Yoshitoshi’s “New Forms Of 36 Ghosts” to label the bottlings in the Ghost Series, you try to pair a print that carries with it some resonance to the whisky contained.

In the early days, you’ve detailed for the fans the entire origins of the bottling as well as the linkages between various prints selected for its corresponding whisky. However, as the bottlings went on, it’s gotten much more mysterious and you’ve been less exhaustive in letting us in on some of the remarkable stories of these bottlings and of course with it, the resonance between various bottlings and the prints you’ve selected for them.

As massive fans, we’ve taken the liberty to go full ghostbusters and have attempted to speculate why some of these labels were selected – could you confirm for us if these conspiracy theories are spot on, and if not, what might be the actual reason for these labels?

Stefan: Yes, in the beginning of the series, everything was detailed on Nonjatta, but when the blog was discontinued, I didn’t really have a platform to geek out about how bottlings came to be and the backstories involved.

Ghost #1 Karuizawa 1996/2013 | Print: The Enlightenment of Jigokudayu Ghost #2 Karuizawa 1995/2013 Rouge Cask | Print: Kiyohime Changes into a Serprent at Hidaka River     Ghost #3 Hanyu 2000/2014 Grappa Finish | Print: Seigen's Ghost Haunts Sakurahime	Taken from Nonjatta: Ghost #1: “Dayu” was a term of respect for the highest rank of courtesan, but “Jigoku” (literally, “hell”) was a term for the lowest rank of unlicensed workers in the pleasure quarters of those days. Having abandoned her earlier life and ways, “Lady Hell” is portrayed here sitting in meditation as a procession of skeleton courtesans – including two child skeletons, the courtesan’s child attendants – passes by her." Link to story here. Ghost #2: "For the label, I selected one of my favourite prints from Yoshitoshi’s “New Forms of 36 Ghosts”: “Kiyohime Changes into a Serpent at Hidaka River” (no.11). An intense story for an intense whisky… one you’ll never forget!" Link to story here.	Taken from Nonjatta:   "...had to be “Seigen’s Ghost haunts Sakurahime”, because of the Kyoto connection but also because it concludes a sort of mini-trilogy in the ongoing series about the collision between the pleasures of the flesh and the realm of the spiritual, as exemplified in ghost stories involving courtesans and monks." Link to story here.
Ghost #4 Kawasaki 1980/2014 | Print: The Lucky Tea Kettle of Morin Temple	88B Fan Theory: The woodcutter saving the badger which then turns itself into a tea kettle for the woodcutter to sell is analogous of Ichiro Akuto having saved the remaining Kawasaki stocks when he found them in a warehouse, which then became something he could use for the early blends he sold.	Stefan Ghostbuster: It's a nice interpretation and I wish I had thought of it! I don’t remember what exactly prompted me to select this print, but I do remember I had made 3 prototypes each featuring a different print from the series. Why it ended up being this one, I can’t remember…
Ghost #5 Karuizawa “4 Decades” | Print: The Yotsuya Ghost Story	88B Fan Theory: Label depicts a child breastfeeding, which was selected as the expression was sold for a children’s charity.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Correct!
Ghost #6 Ichiro's Wine Wood Reserve Cask Strength | Print: The ever-reflecting water is frozen and covered with ice, it does not mirror the evening moon in the sky -Sogi	This was revealed to us in a DM.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Wine leaves in the woodblock print for the cask strength Wine Wood Reserve Ichiro's.
Ghost #7 Time Slip Karuizawa x Kawasaki | Print: Ghost of Taira no Tomomori	88B Fan Theory: Like the ghost which reappears, the blended whisky which was made in the 1970s was frozen in time as it was bottled in glass that stopped ageing, until it made a reappearance in 2015 like the ghost in the story.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Yes, that was pretty much the inspiration behind it.
Ghost #8 Chichibu Hanyu Double Distilleries | Print: Oniwaka Observing The Great Carp	88B Fan Theory: Story of Oniwaka avenging his mother by retrieving his mother’s remains in the carp is analogous to Ichiro Akuto “avenging” his grandfather by retrieving what remains of his grandfather’s Hanyu stock from the corporate beast that threatened to dispose of it.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Again, a nice interpretation, but not something I thought about when selecting this print. Basically, for all the charity bottlings (with all proceeds donated to children’s charities in Japan) I wanted the labels to feature children…. and there aren’t many in Yoshitoshi’s series.
Ghost #9 Akashi ex-Sake Cask | Print: Nitta Tadatsune Discovering An Apparition	88B Fan Theory: Akashi’s bravery in experimenting with a whole range of unique casks is akin to Nitta Tadatsune’s bravery in warding off the apparition.    *Stefan explains to us that the Akashi bottlings required some pragmatism where prints had to be selected that could afford some leeway to be cropped to fit the bottle without losing key detail.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Very perceptive! The major headache with Akashi bottlings, indeed, is that the visual frame available for the woodblock print is very small and more square (leaning towards landscape orientation) whereas the original woodblock prints are all in portrait orientation. So for Akashi bottlings I am limited in my choice and can only go for prints in which I can “crop” the woodblock print in such a way that it doesn’t lose any key elements and meaning.
Ghost #10 Ichiro’s Malt Double Distilleries + Peated | Print: Taira no Koremochi Vanquishing the Demon of Mt. Togakushi	88B Fan Theory:  In the print there are three personalities, of which two belong to the same entity – the woman and her reflection as a demon, which reflects the two Chichibu “personalities” in this blend, which the third personality here is the Hanyu in the blend.	Stefan Ghostbuster: The reason is more prosaic – and more accidental. When Yamaoka-san was preparing the Japanese translation of “Whisky Rising”, the original idea was to use this print on the cover of the book. We eventually decided to go for a different cover, and then decided to use this print for one of the three bottlings arranged to promote the launch of the Japanese translation of the book.
Ghost #11 Komagatake 2015 Non-Peated Tsunuki Aging | Print: The Foxfires in Nijushiko	This was revealed to us in a DM.	Stefan Ghostbuster: With the Mars Shinshu, the place where the ghost story happened and the location of the distillery.
Ghost #12 Chichibu 2009 MDC 10 Year Old | Print: The Ghost of Okiku at Sarayashiki	88B Fan Theory:  This revolves around the number 10 which is a big milestone of Chichibu. Like the ghost seeking to clear her name, Ichiro Akuto having reached the 10 year mark of Chichibu Distillery, has cleared his name when in the early days many thought he was crazy for wanting to start a distillery amidst a bleak domestic market.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Very true! This was actually a cask I had bought in 2010 and when I started the Ghost Series in 2013, I knew immediately I wanted to reserve this particular woodblock print for when I bottled this cask when it reached 10 years of age. So I patiently waited – and, as you point out, it was like counting to 10 (in very slow motion for the maturation of the cask, of course) and counting to 10 is such a big part of the story behind this woodblock print.
Ghost #13 Kyoto Gin Cask Aged | Print: The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child	88B Fan Theory:  Like Ghost #5 this was for a children’s charity and so a print with a child depicted was chosen.	Stefan Ghostbuster: True!
Ghost #14 Akashi 2015 ex-Cabernet Franc Cask | Print: Old Woman Retrieving Her Arm	88B Fan Theory: Could this be a reference to yourself coming back for the other Akashi cask that you had first identified whilst selecting Ghost #9.	Stefan Ghostbuster: No, it was more a case of finding a print I could crop to accommodate the visual frame. I like there to be as much resonance as possible between a print and the liquid, but sometimes, one is forced to be pragmatic… This was one of those cases.
Ghost #15 Akashi 2016 ex-Tawny Port Cask | Print: Sadanobu Threatening A Demon In The Palace At Night	88B Fan Theory: Again a reference to Akashi’s boldness in their cask experiments, and also perhaps the darkness of night on the print matches the dark colours of this expression.	Stefan Ghostbuster: The latter absolutely. In this case, the resonance was on the purely visual level.
Ghost #16 Kanosuke Chardonnay Cask Finish | Print: Heron Maiden	88B Fan Theory: The whiteness and length of the silk brocades is a reference to the white sands of the long beaches of Fukiagehama where Kanosuke Distillery is at. The story of the rescued heron is also analogous to Kanosuke’s founder Yoshitsugu’s efforts to nurse his family’s declining shochu business back to health, which has handsomely rewarded him.	Stefan Ghostbuster: These thoughts certainly swirled around in my mind, but the main reason for choosing this was the connection with the distillery logo (i.e. the “bird” connection).
Ghost #17 Tsunuki 4 Year Old | Print: Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree	88B Fan Theory: Kagoshima where Tsunuki Distillery is located is a popular place for cherry blossom viewing.	Stefan Ghostbuster: There is that, but the main reason here was that visually this is like a twin print to the one I used for the Mars Shinshu bottling… so it’s like a mini-series within the series these two prints featured on the Hombo bottlings.
Ghost #18 Akashi 2018 3 Year Old Heavily Peated | Print: The Ghost of Wicked Genta Yoshihira Attacking Namba Jiro	This was revealed to us in a DM.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Also, with the most recent one (#18) which is a heavily peated one, and for that one, I chose a figure coming out of smoke and fire - which went well with the character of the spirit.
Ghost #19 Akkeshi 3 Year Old | Print: The Death Stone of Nasu Moor	88B Fan Theory: Nasu Moor is a metaphor for Hokkaido which has been a “death stone” for other distilleries despite the belief that it has a suitable climate for whiskymaking, as a result of Yoichi’s dominant presence, that is until Akkeshi, exemplified by the monk who exorcises Nasu Moor, broke that record and established itself as the second Hokkaido-based distillery.	Stefan Ghostbuster: That’s not something I thought about – again, like with Ghost #16, it was the “bird” connection.
Ghost #20 Shizuoka 2019 | Print: Omori Hikoshichu Encountering A Demon	88B Fan Theory:  Is the protagonist saving the maiden, which is in actuality a demon, a reference to Shizuoka’s efforts to rescue Karuizawa’s still – Karuizawa being personified as a demon from the popular Noh series where many of the faces are somewhat demonic-looking.	Stefan Ghostbuster: Yes, that is spot on. This is actually one of my favorite woodblock prints from the series and I wanted to keep this for a bottling where it was appropriate. When making whisky labels, one always has to compromise and crops have to be made, but I am particularly pleased that the box of this bottling actually shows the full print, including the moon at the top.

 

88B: Wow, that was an exhaustive list! Thank you so much for going through our (hopefully) several hits, and many other fan fictions! We hope they were entertaining at the least!

Perhaps at this juncture, you could tell us a little more about your new soon-to-come Ghost Series bottling? 

Stefan: It’s worth pointing out that I don’t aggressively pursue bottlings for the Ghost Series… it’s just not in my nature to do so. So, I just wait and almost let bottlings happen. Of course, a minimal level of agency is necessary, otherwise nothing happens – that is just the way of the world – but I like to just wait and be receptive to serendipity, because I believe that is when the best bottlings happen: when the time, somehow, is right… 

People may be inclined to think this is a load of b.s. – “how can one do 20 bottlings of Japanese whisky with that sort of attitude?” – but I can honestly say that is my approach to the series. 

 

"It’s worth pointing out that I don’t aggressively pursue bottlings for the Ghost Series… it’s just not in my nature to do so. So, I just wait and almost let bottlings happen."

 

The above also explains why I only have one bottling in the pipeline at the moment (and another one for which I have a vague idea but it depends on whether the whisky involved is really ready). The bottling in the pipeline is from one of the big names on the Japanese whisky scene. That is all I can reveal at the moment. It always takes months (usually half a year) between selecting and the bottling being there for people to enjoy, so this probably won’t come out until the fall of this year.

 

88b: Along the way, you’ve taken to working quite closely it seems with Hideo Yamaoka and Whisky Mew, how did you come to work with Yamaoka-san? How do both your expertise go into each bottling? 

What’s the dynamic like there? Is there any aspect where you both complement each other or make up for each other’s strengths or the lack thereof?

 

Hideo Yamaoka (Left) and Stefan (Center) with Kanosuke Distillery founder, Yoshitsugu (Right), selecting a to-be Ghost bottling. (Image Source: WhiskyMew)

 

Stefan: The collaboration came about because of the translation of my book “Whisky Rising”, which Hideo Yamaoka did together with Yu Sumiyoshi (of Bar Leichhardt in Fukuoka). To promote the release of the Japanese edition, Hideo thought it would be a good idea to release 3 bottlings. I thought that was a splendid idea, and so Ghost 9, 10 and 11 were bottled in that context. It was a fantastic experience and so we have worked together on more Ghosts since then. It's a great partnership and especially from my point of view, because I am not business-minded at all, it has advanced the series in ways I wouldn’t have been able to just working by myself. As so often in life, we are limited in what we can do alone, but with the right partner, much more becomes possible!

We bounce ideas off each other and, of course, it’s a lot of fun visiting distilleries together. Picking a cask for bottling is quite a heavy responsibility and so it helps to compare impressions and share the weight of that responsibility.

 

88B: Now into your 20^th bottling in the Ghost Series, what’s been a particularly memorable bottle for you? Could you tell us a little bit more about the story behind it? Or perhaps a particularly interesting story of a bottling you’ve not yet shared on your Facebook or site?

Stefan: They’re all memorable, one way or another, but an example of serendipity at work would be Ghost #20.

 

Shizuoka Distillery.

 

Shizuoka distillery runs a successful private cask program, but other than for independent bottlers Blackadder and Asta Morris, it doesn’t do private bottlings in the sense of allowing someone to come and taste cask samples and giving them the chance to pick “the best one”.

For me, however, that is the raison d’etre of the series: offering something that has been specifically selected for its superb qualities. So, I didn’t think Shizuoka would be in the series for the foreseeable future… But you can never tell.

A friend of mine owned a bunch of casks, and he also happened to be a fan of the Ghost series, so he reached out to me and I tasted through his cask samples and found an excellent one. However, when the cask was gauged at the distillery, it became clear that it had lost almost half of its contents. The distillery offered to replace the cask with a similar one, so again there were a handful of samples to taste from. And what do you know, one of those samples was even better than the one I had originally identified. So, in the end, in a very roundabout way and through serendipity, I did end up finding a really beautiful Shizuoka that became part of the Ghost Series.

 

But like I said, all of them are special in one way or another – and certainly in the sense that I don’t ever take it for granted that these bottlings happen in the first place!

 

88B: Bottling Japanese whiskies is perhaps akin to catching lightning – so much has to align for it all to happen, and you’ve done it 20 times. Has there been a bottling that got away?

Stefan: No, there hasn’t been a single one that got away … yet. If anything, I pinch myself that there are 20 “in the bag”, including some from distilleries that are no longer around.

  

88B: What about one that happened but was most unexpected?

Stefan: The one where I got really lucky was the 33 Year Old Kawasaki, I guess. That was a case of inquiring at the right time. A large part of the grain whisky in that particular cask had been used in a special blended whisky, and there was an unused portion... I have to leave some of the mystery as to how, what and why, but that unused portion ended up becoming Ghost #4.

  

 

88B: It’s been 10 years since you first launched the Ghost Series, with 16 more prints to go, and as we’ve talked about several times, a lot has changed in the Japanese whisky scene.

Do you also see the Ghost Series as also having become something of an anthology capturing the evolution of the Japanese whisky landscape – in a way it’s a liquified chronicling of this chapter in the Japanese whisky canon?

Stefan: Yes, that’s right. Without intending to, the series holds up a mirror to the evolution of the Japanese whisky landscape at large.

The beginning of the series is dominated by legendary distilleries and some serious age statements… Recently, it’s more a procession of 3- and 4-year olds (but exceptional nonetheless!). That is just the way things have changed.

Bottling a double-digit age statement Japanese whisky these days, let’s face it, is well-nigh impossible… For now, that is. But I am not in a hurry, so it may well be that it takes me another 10 years to complete the series, and then the end of the series may well see a return of double-digit age statements – not 20+ years of course, but respectable teenagers. Who knows? That’s what keeps things exciting…

 

"Without intending to, the series holds up a mirror to the evolution of the Japanese whisky landscape at large."

 

88B: With 16 more woodblock prints of dry ammo, have you ever looked back at one (or some) of the 20 bottlings of the Ghost Series thus far and thought “Dang!” I should have used a different woodblock print? Given that the whiskies to be bottled show up sequentially over the years, perhaps there are some woodblock prints you wish you saved for future releases?

If so, which ones were they?

Stefan: Not really. There is one that worries me a bit, though.

 

“Priest Raigo of Mii Temple Transformed by Wicked Thoughts into a Rat” (Image Source: The Claremont Colleges)

 

That’s No.25 entitled “Priest Raigo of Mii Temple Transformed by Wicked Thoughts into a Rat”. It’s a very striking print, but it’s dominated by rats destroying a bunch of books and scrolls. I don’t think any distillery would be too keen on having this print on the label – but again, never say never…

   

88B: To state the painfully obvious, Japanese whiskies, much less your Ghost Series bottlings, have absolutely gone “bat-shit mental” in terms of their prices as a result of the overwhelming (and perhaps even undeserved these days) demand for them.

To put it bluntly, what’s continued to motivate you to put these bottles out rather than simply keep these amazing whiskies to yourself? You have after all, perhaps one of the best access to some phenomenal whiskies. Have you ever contemplated calling it quits on the series because of all the fervor surrounding Japanese whiskies at the moment?

Stefan: The joy of discovering superb whiskies and sharing them with other whisky enthusiasts is what drives me. What happens once they are “out there” is beyond my control, but I can’t deny it is gratifying to see that the series is appreciated by many whisky enthusiasts / collectors out there.

 

Wouldn't you like to be at this tasting. (Image Source: The Dramble) 

 

88B: Now, if you would kindly bear with us, we feel almost compelled to pick your brain on some areas of keen interest in the whisky scene at large.

 As Japanese whiskies took off somewhere in the mid-2010s, what did you feel about it? Could you describe some of the madness and frenzy that had begun to happen and what was the sort of sense that you got around the bars, distilleries and people?

Stefan: To be honest – at the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon – I miss the old days (by which I mean, pre-2012, so I’m not talking about the “dark ages” here). The days when online auctions hadn’t taken off yet and when you could find superb whiskies for peanuts without any trouble.

I visited local whisky shops with Ichiro’s Cards with the labels yellowed and falling off because they had been standing on the shelves for a couple of years. I used to go to Bic Camera stores all the time because they had a dozen or more different Suntory Owner’s Casks for 10,000 yen a bottle or less. (And I would keep tabs on which Bic Camera had what and what was relatively scarce, to buy those bottlings first before they were gone forever.) I also miss the days when you could go to a bar to figure out whether you liked a new release (and I’m talking about Japanese whisky here) to make up your mind whether to buy it or not.

 

Bic Camera does not just sell cameras. (Image Source: Tohoku x Tokyo)

 

"I know that some people love the chase and the competitive nature of “scoring” / “collecting” / “hunting down” / whatever-you-want-to-call-it Japanese (or any other kind of) whisky, but I am not one of those people."

 

In fact, I tend to be the opposite: if something becomes too much of a hassle and too much work, I want to seek out more peaceful shores. Sometimes that hurts a bit – especially when one has enjoyed a certain pocket of the scene way before there was a crowd and a hype (for example, I’ve been a Ben Nevis fan since my late teens, way before the hype; similarly, with Karuizawa when it was considered third-rate whisky in Japan), but life is too short and there’s too much great whisky out there, so I don’t want any stress in that department of my life. Whenever I feel at risk of getting carried away, I remind myself that I’s just a drink… and pour myself a nice one.

 

88B: With craft distilleries popping up across Japan on an almost monthly (if not weekly) basis, the big players surely have some cards up their sleeve to give consumers a timely reminder of who’s the boss. How do you think they’re going to fight back? How do you think they can or should fight back? Where’s the white space left for them?

Stefan: I think economies of scale (and the concomitant weight of the bureaucracies involved) is hampering the big companies here in terms of really being able to capture the interest and imagination of the serious whisky enthusiast at the present time.

In the past (during the slump), they were able to do this, but from their point of view, that was more a case of doing what had to be done to sell any whisky at all. It’s not that the big boys lack the stock. They’ve been playing catchup for the past decade and a half. It’s just that when you’re driving a humongous truck, you can’t reach the sort of places where a small 4x4 is at its best.. that sort of thing.

 

Still great value! 

 

88B: Stepping away from incredibly difficult to find, break your wallet Japanese whiskies, what’s an easily found Japanese whisky expression that you still go to?

 

Sakurao and Togouchi core range single malts. (Image Source: Time For Whisky)

 

Stefan: There are a few that are not that hard to get that make for ace daily sippers, in my opinion. I think the Ichiro’s Double Distilleries is a great value for money. The Sakurao and Togouchi core range single malt expressions are fabulous and relatively easy to get (not to mention, very reasonably priced). I never miss the annual limited editions from Hombo Shuzo (Komagatake and Tsunuki): top notch and again fairly priced. Having tried the forthcoming (though by the time this interview is published it will be available I think) Fuji Single Malt whisky expression, I am very much looking forward to adding that to my drinks cabinet. The recently released Kanosuke core range expression is lovely, too, and again relatively easy to find.

 

Tsunuki's annual release and Kanosuke's core single malt. (Image Source: Alkali Rye and The Rare Malt)

   

88B: When you published your book Whisky Rising in 2017, you gave the world a snapshot or “state of the nation” of the Japanese whisky landscape then, obviously there’s been lots of developments in the five years that followed. What are some of the most exciting themes or developments that you’re observing?

Stefan: The fact that the number of distilleries keeps growing at a rate never seen before. In fact, it’s happening so rapidly that we can’t even put a number on it anymore. It used to be easy… 7 distilleries, 15 distilleries, 32 distilleries… Now, we know it’s more than 70. More than 80? Likely. About 100? Probably soon (if not already). But any number you quote will probably be wrong within a week or two (and some distilleries want to stay out of the limelight, so there is that too). 

I had said I wouldn’t do an update of “Whisky Rising” just because of the amount of work involved for a single individual who already has his hands full at his day-job and with his family commitments, but I let myself be talked into doing an update to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of proper whisky making in Japan this year. My deadline was the end of August 2022 and I covered all the new distilleries active by then… I just about managed to do that. In less than a year, the numbered has more than doubled, so when I say that “I am not doing an update anymore”, I mean it this time.

 

 

An awesome surprise! Stefan's dropping his newly updated copy of Whisky Rising - get yours over at Amazon!

 

The first edition (written in 2016 and published the year after) was 400 pages. The second edition (written in 2022 and out in June of this year) is just under 650 pages. Any more and the book would become a health hazard for anyone reading it, just to physically hold it…

 

"...but I let myself be talked into doing an update to celebrate the 100^th anniversary of proper whisky making in Japan this year...In less than a year, the numbered has more than doubled, so when I say that “I am not doing an update anymore”, I mean it this time."

 

I think in a year or two (maybe three), there will be more distilleries in Japan than in Scotland. Not everyone can be a winner. That is just the nature of the playing field. There will be superstars, but there will also be losers. Inevitably. Of course, all of these new players picture themselves as the superstars of the future – otherwise, you wouldn’t begin to play, would you? – but can the whisky scene (i.e. the global whisky scene) sustain an entire nation’s whisky industry that is built on the idea of the “premium” (whether in quality, in pricing or both)? Time will tell.

 

88B: While many folks have come to know of you because of your work with Japanese whiskies, your experiences with whisky actually started with Scotch, as with most of us. Scotch whiskies have also gone through much evolution to keep up with the times, the expansion of rules to do with what sort of casks can be used, lots of bigger conglomerates getting involved, tourism has become a big factor as well.

Is there any exciting, positive or underrated work that’s being done in the Scotch scene that more people should know about? Any distilleries or bottlers that you think deserves much more attention (we know you’ve previously mentioned Daftmill)?

 

Daftmill Distillery.

 

Stefan: Dear me, that is a book in itself – and in fact, over the next few years I am working on a book about Scotch whisky, which as you pointed out is my first love and even to this day, most of what I drink is Scotch.

Distilleries I am particularly fond of are (in no particular order): Tomatin, Old Pulteney, Ben Nevis, Glenturret, Kilchoman, Caol Ila, Scapa, Wolfburn and Daftmill. As far as the newer distilleries are concerned, I have tried some stunning works-in-progress from Holyrood distillery in Edinburgh.

 

88B: Over the past several years, the world whisky category has also taken off, amidst a global boom, are there whiskies outside of the usual suspects (Scotch, Japanese, Irish, American) that have caught your attention? Any that you’re particularly fond of? 

 

A major player in the Indian whisky scene. (Image Source: Peated Perfection)

 

Stefan: I’m a big fan of Paul John. There are pockets of flavour I find in many Paul John whiskies that I just can’t find elsewhere – and flavours I enjoy immensely. I also love Glann Ar Mor in Bretagne. I actually own a cask of Kornog (peated whisky made at Glann Ar Mor, vintage 2012) that I should bottle soon.

 

88B: For someone who’s been in Japan for over 20 years, having seen the rise of Japanese whiskies, a phenomenon that really only took place now after 100 years of history, you’ve definitely tasted amongst the most from what Japan has to offer. Where does someone like you look for something that is still able to excite and intrigue you?

Stefan: It’s the journey I love. Sure, I have been lucky to have had lots of drams that are the stuff of legend, and I have good memories of those drams, but the memories are a by-product of the journey.

 

"My family and friends will tell you I am a very difficult man, but if I have one redeeming quality it is that I approach every whisky I try with the same open mind and respectful attitude, regardless of whether it’s a core range expression or a super rare edition, regardless of how old or young it is, and regardless of where it comes from."

 

Islay's farm distillery. (Image Source: Kilchoman)

 

Even drams I have tried in the past and am not too fond of, I keep on revisiting. Nothing is fixed – least of all our sensory impressions as human beings. To give an example, for the longest time, I just couldn’t get into Kilchoman at all. But I kept trying it – and lo and behold, four or five years ago, I discovered some Kilchoman expressions I really liked, and since then, I have discovered many more. And now I’m a huge fan – and I just came back from visiting the distillery and have an even deeper appreciation for what the team there is doing.

 

88B: If you could only drink three whiskies for the rest of your life what would they be? They can be from any provenance, including Scotch or world whisky.

Stefan: A tough question: one would be a Tomatin 1976, another would be a bourbon-matured Chichibu and a third would be a vintage madeira. I know you said “three whiskies” but I love madeira (and was appointed a madeira ambassador here in Japan a few years ago) and let’s face it, sometimes one craves something other than whisky.

  

Stefan at Fuji Distillery. (Image Source: The Dramble)

 

88B: Thanks once again Stefan for doing this interview with us! We’re extremely delighted to have our readers across the region get to know more about you, the provenance of the Ghost Series bottlings and what’s to come!

 

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Stefan's Book: Whisky Rising on Amazon

For readers out there, we hope you enjoyed our little trip ghostbusting with Stefan van Eycken, and we're happy to help announce the release of the second fully updated version of his critically acclaimed book, Whisky Rising, which you can now find on Amazon!

We absolutely adored the first edition, it is a definite must-read for all whisky fans, where Stefan has literally visited every distillery in Japan and covered them till the day the book went to print (that's a story for another time). A great gift that we wished someone gave us, but nah! we'd just purchase it ourselves!

   

Kanpai!

 

@111hotpot