Mars Iwai Tradition Japanese Whisky (75cl)

Mars Iwai Tradition is a Japanese blended whisky in a 750ml bottle. It combines roughly 70% single malt from the Mars Shinshu distillery in Nagano with about 30% grain whisky, which was previously contracted from elsewhere and is now partly distilled on site. The malt is lightly peated, and additional maturation in sherry casks adds richness. The name honours Kiichiro Iwai, who helped commission Masataka Taketsuru's journey to Scotland in 1918 to learn about whisky distilling, and who later built the Mars distillery to Taketsuru's original specifications. It is described as rich and slightly smoky.