Taketsuru 25 Tops the Ninth "Whisky Lottery"

Japanese online liquor shops have been releasing one “lottery” of Japanese whisky after another. On 17 September 2026, Tachibana E Shuhan, a liquor retailer run by Uprising Co., Ltd. of Miyazaki Prefecture, put the ninth lottery consisting solely of Japanese whisky on sale, limited to 200 entries. Each entry costs 9,800 yen (including tax and delivery), and one bottle from the published line-up is sent out at random. The best prize is Nikka’s long-aged pure malt, Taketsuru 25.

What is in the 200 bottles: one top prize, and two thirds are the same bottle

The full breakdown of the 200 bottles has been published. First prize is Taketsuru 25 Pure Malt and second prize is Suntory’s Hakushu 18 from the Hakushu distillery, one bottle of each. Below those are three bottles each of non-age-statement (no maturation age shown) Hakushu, Yamazaki, Hibiki Japanese Harmony and Taketsuru Pure Malt. There are also eight bottles in total of limited editions from Ichiro’s Malt of Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, and Wine Wood Reserve. The rest are the blended whiskies “√ (Root)”, with 45 bottles, and “Yabe”, with 133. In other words, the chance of winning Taketsuru 25 is 1 in 200, and two thirds of buyers will receive Yabe. The seller states that there are “no losing tickets”.

Why sell by lottery?

In Japan, popular long-aged brands have been hard to buy at list price for years. As a result, many of these bottles change hands through prize draws or the secondary market. The lottery format makes one rare bottle the main attraction and sells it alongside more easily available bottles. This is the ninth round, and it is sold on several sites, including Amazon, Rakuten Ichiba and Yahoo! Shopping. That the series has run this long suggests that aged Taketsuru and Hakushu are treated, even within Japan, as bottles you cannot get without a bit of luck. The seller says it controls temperature and humidity in its own warehouse to preserve quality.

The rarity of Japanese whisky seen from Europe

This lottery is aimed at the domestic Japanese market and cannot be bought from Europe. Still, it offers a clue to the state of the market. Long-aged bottles such as Taketsuru 25 and Hakushu 18 circulate in Japan, their country of origin, only through draw-like systems. It would be no surprise if they fetch high prices at specialist shops and auctions in Europe. A more accessible approach is to start by comparing the non-age-statement Hakushu, Yamazaki, Hibiki and Taketsuru Pure Malt. Getting to know each distillery’s style before looking for aged bottles is the realistic route. When buying an aged bottle, check the age statement on the label and the seller’s storage conditions carefully.