Hatozaki Expands Its Omakase Collection With Two New Limited Releases — Including a Global First
The Omakase Collection from Hatozaki Whisky just got wider. The Japanese brand, produced at the Kaikyō Distillery on the shores of the Seto Inland Sea, has unveiled its Fifth and Sixth editions in what has become one of the most closely watched limited-release series in the Japanese whisky market. And for the first time in the collection's history, these two new expressions won't be confined to American shores — they're going global, marking a significant turning point for the brand.
The two new limited releases are inspired by the sakura cherry blossom season and the art of whisky-making across different cultures. That dual inspiration is a fitting summation of what Hatozaki has been chasing since the Omakase series launched: a creative space where the deeply Japanese and the distinctly international can coexist in a single bottle.
What Is the Omakase Collection, and Why Does It Matter?
Honoring the age-old Japanese concept of "Omakase," known as "chef's choice" in Japanese dining, the Omakase collection mirrors the idea of trusting the maker's intuition — allowing for delightful experimentation of flavors and new exploration. In the context of whisky, that translates into a series where each new edition represents a genuine creative swing rather than a predictable brand extension.
Inspired by the Japanese dining tradition of Omakase, the limited edition whisky series was created by Kaikyō's master distiller and blender, Kimio Yonezawa, to explore new ideas in blending, maturation, and flavor. Each release delves into a unique concept, merging global whisky influences with the craftsmanship of Japan at the Kaikyō Distillery. That philosophy has produced some genuinely unusual whiskies: a rye finished in Mizunara oak, an 8-year-old pure malt, and most recently, the brand's oldest expression to date at 15 years. But this new pair may be the most ambitious yet.
A Family Legacy Behind Every Cask
To understand why these releases are significant, you have to understand who is making them and where. Kaikyo Distillery is a recent addition to the Japanese whisky landscape, officially established in 2017 by Kimio Yonezawa. The distillery is an expansion of the Akashi Sake Brewery, which has a long history dating back to 1856. That family connection isn't just marketing language — it is the operating premise of everything Hatozaki produces.
Fourth-generation Master Distiller and Blender Kimio Yonezawa brings blending heritage from a long line of shochu distillers since 1917, and in 2017 he began producing Hatozaki whisky to honor the centennial of his family's distillery and to carry on the tradition of Japanese distilling to a dynamic, evolving category he is most passionate about.
The brewery originally produced sake, mirin, and shochu and endured significant hardships, including damage from World War II and the Great Hanshin Earthquake of 1995. Through all of that, the Yonezawa family kept distilling. When Kimio turned his attention to whisky, he did so with equipment worthy of his ambitions. In the build-up to their celebration of 100 years of spirit production, the company decided to replace their old stills with new copper twin pot-stills made by the famous Scottish company Forsyth's. The new facility has been designed to produce Single Malt Whisky as well as other spirits and has been named The Kaikyo Distillery after the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge that lies in front of the distillery.
Kaikyo Distillery is located in Akashi, Hyogo Prefecture, near the iconic Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge. The distillery benefits from the maritime climate of the Seto Inland Sea, which offers dry, temperate winters and hot, humid summers, ideal for aging spirits. That climate isn't incidental — it actively shapes the character of the whisky aging inside those walls. The brand takes its name from the sea as well. Hatozaki is named for the Hatozaki Lighthouse sitting on the bay of coastline near the distillery, built in 1657 — a beacon of welcoming to all who visit and taste Hatozaki.
The Fifth Edition: Sakura Wood and the Poetry of Seasonal Finishing
The Fifth Edition is a five-year-old blended malt whisky initially matured in new charred oak barrels, and finished for one year in sakura cherrywood casks in Japan. Sakura — the Japanese cherry blossom — occupies a near-mythological place in Japanese culture. The transient beauty of cherry blossoms in spring is a cultural touchstone, and now it is a finishing cask. The use of native sakura wood for maturation places this release squarely in the tradition of Japanese distillers who have sought out domestic woods not just for flavor, but for cultural resonance.
Sakura casks are not a new tool for Hatozaki. The Finest Whisky in the core lineup has long been aged in part using Sakura casks. But deploying sakura as a dedicated finishing cask for an Omakase release elevates the wood's role and ensures its character comes through more deliberately, without the diffusion that comes from blending across multiple wood types. The five-year age statement is relatively young by luxury Japanese whisky standards, but this is intentional — Yonezawa is clearly using this release to foreground the wood's contribution rather than decades of slow-build complexity.
The Sixth Edition: Bourbon Meets Mizunara — A Genuine First for Hatozaki
The Sixth Edition marks Hatozaki's first incorporation of Bourbon into its blend. The addition of Bourbon, along with maturation in American oak casks, allows the whisky to develop layered flavors of coconut, vanilla, and toasted spice. It is then finished for three years in mizunara oak casks, which impart refined notes of sandalwood and a delicate, incense-like complexity.
With an ABV of 42%, the Sixth release is limited to 1,884 bottles worldwide, and retails for £60 (approximately US$80). That bottle count — 1,884 — is strikingly small, and for collectors who have been tracking the Omakase series, it signals that this one will move fast. To put that number in perspective, previous Omakase releases were capped at fewer than 3,000 bottles for the U.S. market alone. With the Sixth Edition going global, that same 1,884-bottle allocation must stretch across international markets.
The Bourbon-in-the-blend decision is worth dwelling on. The use of rye as a base was already noteworthy in the Third Edition, given that few Japanese producers have worked with rye in the past — of note, Hakushu released a 100% rye single grain whisky under the Essence of Suntory banner in 2018, and Nikka used one as the base of an experimental blend some time ago. Adding American Bourbon to the blend of a Japanese whisky takes the cross-cultural premise even further. Yonezawa is not merely finishing in a foreign cask type; he is incorporating a foreign spirit style into the foundational blend itself, then redirecting it through Japan's most idiosyncratic and demanding wood — Mizunara.
Understanding Mizunara
The rare Japanese white oak is sourced from the Hokkaido and Tohoku forests. Whilst it is notoriously difficult to work with, the results are distinct, with notes of sandalwood, coconut, and Japanese incense. Mizunara grows slowly, produces timber with a high moisture content that makes coopering difficult and expensive, and is prone to leaking at the joins. Cooperages in Japan that still produce Mizunara barrels are few, and the wood commands a premium that few distilleries outside of Japan can easily access. That inaccessibility is precisely what makes Mizunara-finished whiskies desirable — the character imparted is genuinely unlike anything achievable with European or American oak.
For the Sixth Edition specifically, the three-year Mizunara finish applied on top of a Bourbon-influenced base creates a flavor layering that should be, on paper, exceptional. American oak typically delivers fast, sweet results — vanilla, caramel, toasted coconut. Mizunara works slowly and adds something stranger: a smoky incense quality, faint sandalwood, and a kind of spiritual weightiness that whisky writers have long struggled to describe without sounding like they are writing about a meditation retreat. The combination could be the most interesting thing the Omakase series has produced yet.
Going Global: A Strategic Expansion
For the first time, expressions from the Hatozaki Omakase Collection will be available globally, with a limited allocation for each release outside the US. Every previous Omakase edition was built specifically for the American market. That U.S.-first strategy made sense: the American appetite for Japanese whisky has been enormous, and Yonezawa explicitly shaped earlier releases — particularly the rye expression — with American palates in mind. He was excited to experiment with the flavors of rye, a popular category with American whisky drinkers, and see how they would respond to native Japanese oak influence.
But expanding globally changes the commercial calculus and the creative one too. Yonezawa now has to craft bottles that hold meaning and interest across different drinking cultures. In Yonezawa's words: "The Omakase Collection gives me the freedom to explore new ideas in whisky creation. Throughout my journey in whisky, I am always learning, and with new knowledge come new opportunities to experiment. Both of these expressions bring something new to the Hatozaki label — from sakura wood casks to incorporating Bourbon within the blend. It allows us to share our whisky-making philosophy while continuing to learn how whisky matures in our part of Japan."
The global rollout also signals a larger organizational shift. This passion extends seamlessly to future innovations, including the highly anticipated global launch of Triple Cask Reserve in 2025 and Hatozaki's first Japanese single malt in 2027. The move toward a first-ever single malt is worth flagging: when Kaikyo Distillery's own pot-still spirit finally reaches the age where it can be marketed as a single malt, the entire Hatozaki story changes. Right now, the brand occupies an interesting and sometimes debated middle space in the Japanese whisky world — a blended product incorporating spirit from multiple sources, shaped by a Japanese master blender and finished in Japanese casks. A proprietary single malt would be a different kind of statement.
The Full Omakase Lineage
To properly place these two new editions in context, it helps to walk through the full series. The Omakase 15 Year Old joins the first three editions: Mizunara Cask, 8 Year Old Pure Malt, and the Omakase Rye Edition. Each installment in the series has pushed into distinct territory.
The Third Edition: The Rye That Started the Conversation
The Third Edition Rye, released in April 2024, was the release that put the Omakase series on the map for American whisky drinkers. The story of this bottle begins with two aged rye whiskies sourced from two unnamed U.S. states. Both aged ryes were then shipped to Japan, blended together and re-barreled into Japanese-native Mizunara oak barrels for an undisclosed period. The blended spirit was then bottled at 42% ABV in Japan and given a "Made in Japan" label per regulatory guidelines, and the batch of approximately 3,000 bottles were shipped back over the ocean to be sold exclusively in the United States for a retail price of $95.
That provenance raised eyebrows in some corners of the whisky press, but it also demonstrated something genuinely interesting about cross-cultural whisky production. It remained interesting to see how the light and floral notes from the finishing barrel would impact the rye's profile. Reviewers who tasted through the skepticism found a whisky that delivered on the concept: American rye's natural spice and grain-forward intensity meeting the sandalwood and incense of Japanese Mizunara in a combination that neither country's distillers could have produced independently.
The Fourth Edition: Fifteen Years and the Oldest Statement Yet
The Fourth Edition is the oldest age statement released from Hatozaki and was limited to fewer than 3,000 bottles, each numbered and sold exclusively in the US market. Available at a suggested retail price of $149.99 (750ml) and bottled at 46% ABV, the limited-edition expression showcases the skillful aging and finishing techniques of Kimio Yonezawa.
The Hatozaki Omakase Small Batch 15 Year Old features a blend of the finest, hand-selected malt whisky aged for an initial 12 years in new charred oak barrels, before finishing for three years in rare Mizunara casks sourced from the Hokkaido forests in Japan. Critics who reviewed it came away impressed. Malty and quite nutty on the nose, it is heavy on almonds as it moves gently into toasty sandalwood as it develops in the glass. There is fruit here, but it is restrained, showcasing caramel-laced spiced apples, later some vanilla-scented pear notes, rich with aromatic florals. Yonezawa marked the release with characteristically philosophical language: "The Omakase Collection is special as it allows us to show our creativity and innovation capabilities. Omakase is not just a whisky, it's a quiet promise — to surprise, to delight, and to honor the moment."
The Core Range: What Holds It All Together
While the Omakase series captures the headlines, the permanent core lineup is what sustains Hatozaki's commercial presence in the market day to day. The core range includes: Hatozaki Triple Cask ($74.99, 750ml, 46% ABV) introduced in April 2025, a blend of hand-selected malt whiskies aged in ex-Bourbon and ex-Sherry casks and finished in Umeshu plum liqueur barrels; Hatozaki Finest Whisky ($45.99, 750ml, 40% ABV), a blend of premium malt whiskies aged for up to 12 years in bourbon casks, sherry casks and native Japanese casks; and Hatozaki Small Batch Whisky ($65.99, 750ml, 46% ABV), a vatting of 100% malt whiskies aged in bourbon casks, sherry casks and native Mizunara oak barrels.
The Triple Cask Reserve, launched in 2025, deserves special mention as a bridge between the core lineup's accessibility and the Omakase series' ambition. The expression showcases a rare finishing technique — Umeshu plum liqueur casks — a method rarely seen in the whisky world and uniquely rooted in Japan. The Ume plums are steeped in Japanese distillate, and the brand claims the plum liqueur lends the final whisky a delicate and citrus-driven quality, with refreshing herbal tea aromas and a light sweetness. All Hatozaki whiskies contain no coloring or chill filtration. That last detail matters more than some consumers realize — it means what's in the bottle reflects exactly what came out of the barrel, without corrective adjustments.
Questions of Provenance and the Transparency Debate
No honest conversation about Hatozaki can avoid the ongoing transparency discussion in Japanese whisky. The category has faced sustained scrutiny for the practice of blending imported whisky with domestically produced spirit and marketing the result as Japanese. For its whiskies, Hatozaki marks the labels with "Made in Japan" and "Produced and Bottled by" statements. That might seem at odds with the liquid's American provenance, but that has been the practice in Japanese whisky for many years.
These whiskies are not, for the moment, eligible for the formal designation of "Japanese whisky," being composed probably in a significant part of foreign whiskies imported to Japan. Hatozaki is transparent about the fact that its core range is a blend that evolves as the Kaikyo Distillery's own spirit matures, and the brand has been candid about the sourced components in its Omakase releases. Whether that transparency is sufficient is a matter of ongoing debate in the whisky community, but Hatozaki's approach has been more forthright than many of its competitors.
The road toward full independence from sourced spirit is already being mapped. In 2017, the production of spirits gained new momentum with the installation of Forsyths stills and the creation of the Kaikyō distillery to produce Japanese whisky and gin. While waiting for the first single malt distilled at the Kaikyō distillery to be sufficiently mature, Kimio Yonezawa uses his skills as a master blender on Hatozaki blend whiskies. A first proprietary single malt, projected for 2027, would mark the completion of that transition and render the provenance question largely moot.
What This Means for Collectors and Enthusiasts
The launch of the Fifth and Sixth Omakase editions represents the best buying opportunity in the series since the Rye Third Edition hit shelves in 2024. The sakura-finished Fifth Edition will appeal to drinkers who have followed the Japanese wood story closely — sakura's lighter, more delicate influence is a counterpoint to Mizunara's heavy, resinous character, and seeing it used as a primary finishing cask rather than a blending afterthought should produce something genuinely distinctive. The Sixth Edition, with its Bourbon-in-the-blend ambition and three-year Mizunara finish, is the more adventurous pour and, at 1,884 bottles globally, the rarer one.
Pricing the Sixth at around $80 — comparable to what the Third Edition Rye commanded at $95 — positions it as accessible for serious enthusiasts without requiring the $149.99 commitment of the 15-year Fourth Edition. For anyone who missed the earlier Omakase releases and regrets it, these two are the kind of bottles that reward picking up before they disappear. The releases tap into the high demand for Japanese whiskies in the US, particularly those featuring sought-after Mizunara oak finishes, which are known for imparting unique notes of sandalwood and spice.
The global availability shift also means that for the first time, American buyers will be competing with international buyers for the same bottle. Limited allocations for markets outside the U.S. will reduce the domestic supply relative to previous editions. Anyone who has watched the secondary market for Japanese whisky over the past decade understands what that arithmetic produces.
A Distillery in Motion
The Hatozaki story is still being written. Yonezawa — a fourth-generation distiller — has spent decades mastering whisky craftsmanship and is committed to upholding the high standards set by the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association. The work that goes on in the cellars is a product of a masterful level of precision and understanding, encompassing everything from the carefully selected spirits that form the structure of each blend, the type of wood, history and char levels of each of the barrels, the tailored design of the pot-stills, and the precise blending and aging methods used by the expert team at the Kaikyō Distillery.
Hatozaki is part of the Marussia Beverages portfolio that includes Akashi-Tai Sake, 135 East Gin, and Torabhaig single malt whisky. That company context matters: Marussia is an international distributor with the infrastructure to push Hatozaki into markets that have historically been hard for independent Japanese brands to reach. The global Omakase launch is as much a Marussia distribution story as it is a Yonezawa creativity story, and that combination — artistic vision backed by commercial reach — is a formidable one.
Two new whiskies. One for the season, one for the ages. And for the first time, the world gets to decide what it thinks.
