Why so little product information on the Yamazaki 12yrs box?

[blacksabb]

Hi everyone. As I said in the chat section, I finished a bottle of Yamazaki 12yrs and absolutely loved it. The nose was beautifully fragrant and sweet, but the palate was dry and wonderfully woody, and super smooth. For me, this is an instant repeat buy (which I just have) and is one of the most pleasant whiskies I've yet sampled.

The actual box of this whisky has very little information on it however. I was then very surprised to find out from another whisky site that the Yamazaki 12yrs is aged in 3 types of wood barrel: American, Japanese and Spanish oak. Every other whisky I have displays plenty of information on the box. Particularly major selling points such as non chill filtering, no adding coloring, matured/finished in sherry, wine, port casks etc. Basically anything that distinguishes it from some other (lesser) whisky.

I am very surprised that if a manufacturer goes to all the trouble of maturing their whisky in 3 types of wood, that it doesn't bother to actually state this on the box. To me, this just doesn't seem to be very good product enhancement/promotion. I would have thought that you'd state something like this clearly on the box as 3 wood maturation is indicative of a high end whisky. But if no one knows........

Opinions?

[jimidrammer]

Mine had a hang tag on the neck with info about the history of the distillery, but the box is kind of devoid of info about the whisky. Their web page tells a lot more.

http://www.suntory.com/yamazaki/12and18year.html

I agree it would be a good selling point for them although I don't know the significance of Japanese oak. I assume American is ex-Bourbon, European is ex-Sherry, so I wonder if the other is virgin oak casks, that would explain the clean wood character.

I've heard great things about the 18yo also, but the $107 price tag has held me back so far.

[steveblack]

I would think it is typical of the Japanese way.

Of course the big brands like Sony, Toyota use marketing & promotional resources of the local country and thus look 'in place'. The typical Japanese way concentrate more on the product & presentation than on promoting in way to look at home outside of Japan.

Middle and smaller sized Japanese companies may be extending Japanese marketing philosophies to markets elsewhere. So, while Scotch and American go crazy over stretching or even creating non-existent USPs, the made for Japan, marketed elsewhere, promos may not do it.

This is my feeling from having worked with the the typical Japanese companies. I could be wrong though.

[Gov]

I've heard great things about the 18yo also, but the $107 price tag has held me back so far.

IMO the 18 is a clear and large step up from the 12. Stunning stuff for the price (here)

I respectfully disagee I enjoyed the 12 more than the 18. 12 had a more fruity taste and the 18 more woody which hampered all that great fruitiness thats in the 12. Don't get me wrong the 18 is good too!