HONG KONG.- Earlier this year, Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible 2015 named a Japanese whisky as the world’s best for the first time. Murray praised the Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013, which retails at £100, for its ‘light, teasing spice.’ Murray’s judgement is yet another sign that, while the popularity of whisky generally is on the up, Japanese distilleries are at the forefront of the renaissance.

Bonhams has established itself as one of the world’s premier auctioneers of Japanese whisky in 2014, with

· More than 380 bottles auctioned across three sales in Hong Kong
· More than 99% were sold by lot, totals were 40% higher than estimates
· Spectacular successes: a bottle of Yamazaki 50-year old sold in August for HK$257,250, while a bottle of Karuizawa 33-year old took HK$245,000

The story of Japanese whisky isn’t one of unpredictable, overnight success. Whiskies from Japan have been winning accolades at the Whisky Magazine Awards, including the coveted Best Single Malt, for several years. Dave Broom, author of The World Atlas of Whisky, says: “We are perhaps more eager to see it as something new, rather than as an industry which has been producing since 1928.”

But recently there has been an undeniable sense of the changing of the guard; that, for the first time, Japanese whiskies have begun to consistently match those produced in Scotland. A huge amount of hard work has gone into developing the premium Japanese brands, and Broom now finds in the country’s finest whiskies “an aromatic intensity which sets them apart”.

Now collectors in Japan and across the world have started to give these whiskies the attention they deserve, and there will be an impressive Japanese contingent in the Whisky Auction Featuring Closed Distilleries on 6 February 2015 at Bonhams Hong Kong. As Daniel Lam of the Bonhams Wine & Whisky Department in Hong Kong says, “Japanese whisky has now well and truly arrived on the international stage and no serious buyer or collector of whisky will want to miss the chance to own these exquisite and rare whiskies.”

The 250-lot auction will offer rare single malts from the most sought after brands in Japan, including whiskies from several now-closed distilleries, such as the celebrated pair of Karuizawa and Hanyu. The termination of Hanyu was a great disappointment for Broom, but the mothballing of Karuizawa was a disaster.

“Karuizawa still baffles me,” he says. “The distillery was closed as a result of economic forces and the downturn in the Japanese economy, but it could have been reopened given the global interest in Japanese single malt. It is a disgrace that it never reopened.”

It is the single casks from these wonderful though now-defunct distilleries which attract the greatest interest and the highest prices among collectors. After all, each bottle is now one of a limited edition. The world already holds all the Karuizawa it ever will.

Broom says he isn’t surprised by how well premium Japanese whiskies are performing at auction. The quality is magnificent and the scarcity raises the stakes higher still. Leading the sale on 6 February will be the four-bottle case of Hanyu Ichiro’s Malt – Ace of Spades, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds, which has a pre-sale estimate of HK$160,000-200,000.