Mars Shinshu Whisky "The Lucky Cat–Luna"

Located between Japan’s soaring Southern Alps and the towering Central Alps, at just over 2,600 feet, Mars Shinshu is Japan’s highest whisky distillery. The Hombo family have been distilling for more than a century and added whisky to their repertoire in 1949. At that time the distillery was located in the Tsunuki region of Kagoshima Prefecture on the southern-most island of Kyushu.

Until 1984, it was the southernmost whisky made in Japan, which ended when the Hombo clan moved the distillery to the idyllic alpine setting of Miyada village in southern Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan. They chose this site for its cool temperature, which slowed maturation, and the plentiful soft granite filtered snowmelt fed aquifers. A beautiful choice. 

In 2016, Hombo Shuzo reopened and introduced new pot stills to their first distillery location in Kagoshima now known as the Mars Tsunuki Distillery, once again Japan’s southernmost distillery.They also built an aging facility on a tiny island known as Yakushima, a National World Heritage site, where they now age spirits from both Shinshu and Tsunuki distilleries.

Luna is the 6th edition of Mars Shinshu’s Lucky Cat series of blended whiskies. This whisky’s namesake is an affectionately energetic calico cat who, at just about a year old, runs circles around Choco, the cat who graced the last edition of this series. Luna is a blend of malt whisky distilled at Mars’ Nagano distillery and grain whisky that is aged primarily in manzanilla, along with oloroso sherry casks. The bittersweet character of sherry balances the lush tones of caramel, brown sugar, and cocoa that comprise this incredibly quaffable whisky.

This bottling is named after the new Hombo family calico cat, Luna. 990 bottles for the USA.