At the beginning of October, we took off our shoes – as is the custom – to enter the white wood-floored private lounge and meet Shinji Fukuyo, master blender of Suntory whiskies. In front of an audience of international journalists, the century-old house's elegant master blender was about to unveil his Hibiki 40 Years Old for the first time, the oldest blend ever produced by this Beam Suntory-owned brand. The worldwide launch was taking place not in Osaka prefecture, where one of the group's main distilleries is located, but in Paris, at Ogata, a restaurant-deli-gallery dedicated to the Japanese art of living.

"It's only natural that such a rare whisky should be launched in Paris, an iconic city of luxury," said Taki Nakatani, Suntory Whisky's global director. "Japan and France share a passion for craftsmanship, food and high-end beverages. Your country was one of the first to recognize the quality of our whiskies," he emphasized, before Fukuyo presented his prestigious 40-year-old blend with delicate aromas of honey and clove. A quintessential example of the art of Japanese blending, with just 400 bottles produced and selling for... €38,250.

An inaccessible jewel for the vast majority of French lovers of Japanese whisky, even though the number of converts continues to grow. Admittedly, the category accounts for just 3% of whisky sales in France, but it's one of the few categories that is growing (by around 8% per year) in a spirits sector that is in decline. This French trend has continued unabated since it started over 20 years ago, to the point where France has become one of the world's leading importers.

Hiromi Ozaki, master blender of Nikka whiskies, the other Japanese institution, was in the French capital at the end of September for the Whisky Live Paris trade show, when he pointed out that "France was the first country to discover Nikka's potential and open up the European market to us." To be more specific, La Maison du Whisky (LMDW). Launched in 1956 by brothers Simon, Félix and Georges Bénitah, the company first made a name for itself importing pure Scotch malts. Headed since the late 1990s by Georges' son Thierry Bénitah, the company has become one of France's leading distributors of premium spirits and a pioneer in the distribution of Japanese whiskies.

"In 1994, my father began importing a few bottles of Suntory, via the Louis Royer cognac brand, which the Japanese had bought in 1989," recalled Thierry Bénitah. "But neither we nor our customers understood these products at the time, which we found too expensive." Although the first Japanese distilleries, Yamazaki (owned by Suntory) and Yoichi (owned by Nikka), were launched in 1923 and 1934 respectively, their production remained a well-kept secret for a long time. The reason: the Second World War, economic ups and downs, and the desire of these companies to focus on their huge domestic market, before starting to export at the end of the 1990s.

You have 63.44% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.