Where to buy Yamazaki Single Malt Whiskey

Is there any place you would recommend in purchasing Yamazaki Single Malt Whiskey in the Ginza area? How much would it be?

go to department stores. if you are a visitor and buy it as a souvenir, you can get it with no sales tax.

There are several liquor stores in Ginza area. I think you can purchase at "Shinano-Ya, Ginza".

What age of Yamazaki are you looking for?
Yamazaki with no age(700ML) is 3,500 Yen + Tax(8%), 12 years(700ML) is 7,000 Yen + Tax, 18 years(700ML) is 20,000 Yen + Tax, 25 years(700ML) is 100,000 Yen(limited numbers only).

Ask at "Shinano-Ya Ginza" if you want to buy a bottle of 18 yrs and 25 yrs.
http://www.shinanoya.co.jp/shop/shop_detail/ginza.html

8-6-22, Ginza Chuo-ku, Tokyo
tel:03-3571-3315
open:11:00-4:00(Mon-Fri), 12:00-21:00(Sat), 12:00-19:00(Sun&Holiday)

If you are looking for 18 yrs and/or 25 yrs, you need to visit a liquor section of Takashimaya or Matsuya Ginza.

All your replies are very helpfull. Thank you very much.

You can buy ordinary Yamazaki in combinis. Most often in small (quarter) bottles. Have a look around. Different combini chains stock different whisky brands (I assume they have deals with different drinks companies).

For a wider choice of different offerings (special bottlings, etc), you've already had a good recommendation above.

Thabk you to all who replied. I guess it is not difficult to find. How many bottles can a single traveller bring out?

You can bring out as many as you want, but there is probably a duty free limit in your home country that you'll have to research about. You can bring more than that limit to a point, but will likely have to start paying tax on it.

Is it cheaper to buy at the airport during departure. I know the older the whiskey is, it is more likely to be sold out. What about the regular Yamazaki single malt whiskey? Or would it be safer to buy outside and in the city proper.

Thank you

I was in Tokyo recently and used the Haneda airport upon departure. Sadly, there was no Yamazaki available. In fact, they did not have quality Japanese whisky available. The lady told me all their Duty Free Shops in the all their airports were out of stock.

At Narita Airport they have a large alcohol duty free shop. They also sold Yamazaki and Hibiki (a whiskey blend made by the same brewery). We were surprised to see that the Hibiki cost more than twice as much at the Airport than at the department stores. The only difference being that the bottle was nicer which we obviously didn't care about. Had we known we would have purchased in a department store instead of in the duty free shop at Narita. It was a rip off ;-)

The only difference being that the bottle was nicer which we obviously didn't care about. Had we known we would have purchased in a department store instead of in the duty free shop at Narita. It was a rip off ;-)

When I've shopped the Narita duty free, the Hibiki sold there was the 21 year which retails for around 35,000 yen, and man were those flying off the shelves ;)

Perhaps they were selling the limited edition Mount Fuji Bottles that day? Those will go for double or triple the regular 21 year bottle price.

They didn't sell the 12 year old Hibiki in regular bottles. I suppose the limited edition bottle raised the price to 10.000 yen, I didn't think of that. According to the label on the box the theme of the bottle is "Kacho Fugetsu" and the design embodies Japanese nature. BTW, the price for a 12 year old Hibiki here in Colorado is about $65..... We'll keep the bottle once it is empty, another nice souvenir from our trip to Japan. The Narita duty free liquor store was well stocked with Yamazaki and Hibiki.

Yea, those limited edition bottles really jack up the price ;)

Have you tried the 17 year yamazaki single malt?

Hasegawa is where I go to purchase spirits, both domestic and imported. I found some rare J Walker bottles that are not found in the USA. Of course, they have multiple types of Japanese whisky, blended and singles.

A little bit off the track; view Massan, the last Asadora which finished several months ago. A historical drama of one person who pushed the whisky trade in Japan.

Dale

Whoops, sorry. Forgot to list their link.

http://www.liquors-hasegawa.com

They are in the Yaesu mall just east of Tokyo station, B1, toward Nihonbashi.

Dale

Thanks for bumping this thread; all of the LCBOs have been sold out and I wanted to get Yamazaki for my dad for his bday (he's been rated by Bowmore as being in the 99% percentile in the world for his sense of smell when it comes to foods and drink), since he is a BIG, fine scotch guy.

Thank you!

yllwsmrf - no, haven't tried the single malt, hubby prefers blends, Hibiki is his favorite.
Here is an interesting article on how Yamazaki is taking over the world
http://www.cntraveler.com/stories/2015-07-20/how-yamazaki-japanese-whi...
Cheers! ann

Last price check I did, Narita was slightly more expensive than some of the local stores for Yamazaki - Y3,500 was generally the price level I saw. Interestingly, for the 1/4 bottles the price varied by 15% between different locations (combis), but for less than Y1000 it's still good value.

For a silly price, my local store here in NZ has just started importing Yamazaki and charging around Y8,000!

Supermarkets, convenience stores, alcohol shops.

If you venture towards Shimbashi, there's a great booze shop just south/west of the station that has a range of whiskies, some likely even nicer than Yamazaki (and cheaper too). Yamazaki is the most famous outside of Japan, but there are so many good whiskies here.

Also - dunno where you're from... but Yamazaki is easy to get in the UK at least. I know some of the big supermarkets sell it. Sainsbury's/Tesco

You can only find limited edition bottles at the airport now. They stopped selling regular japanese whisky at the airports since april this year because (mainly) the chinese tourists were buying up everything. Due to the weaker yen and the increased popularity of japanese whisky in the recent years..

to give you an idea what the prices were back in february:
hibiki 12/17/21years: 4100/8000/16500yen