Mars Iwai 45 (75cl, 45%)

Mars Iwai 45 is a Japanese blended whisky in a 750ml bottle, bottled at 45% ABV. It combines roughly 30% single malt from the Mars Shinshu distillery in Nagano with 70% grain whisky, which was previously contracted from elsewhere and is now partly distilled on site. The name honours Kiichiro Iwai, who helped commission Masataka Taketsuru's 1918 journey to Scotland to study whisky distillation. Taketsuru later built Suntory's Yamazaki Distillery and founded Nikka, while Iwai kept his notes and built the Mars distillery to the original specifications. It is described as having classic blended whisky smoothness with added richness and texture.