Japanese vs Scottish Whisky MasterClass | Belfast Whiskey Week 2021

Name: Belfast Whiskey Week 2026
Start: 2026-07-24
End: 2026-08-01
Location: Belfast

Filed: 26 Jul 2021
By: Belfast Whiskey Week
Read: 3 min
Ref: BWW/21/708

Some tastings ask you to appreciate a single distillery's vision. Session 42 at Belfast Whiskey Week 2021 asked something altogether more ambitious: to hold two great whisky traditions in your hands at once, and decide — if you dared — which one moved you more. Held on the afternoon of 26th July 2021, this MasterClass paired the contemplative precision of Japanese whisky against the rugged, storied craft of Scotland, six drams deep, with no easy answers and all the better for it.

About This Event

This tasting includes 6 x 50ml Samples & Glass and will take place on the 26th @ 16:30.

This tasting comprises of:

Nikka Tailored - 43%
Cadenhead's Seven Stars - 46%
Nikka Yoichi Sherry Wood Finish - 2018
46% The Balvenie Double Wood 12yo - 40%
Nikka Miyagikyo
Lagavulin 9yo - House of Lannister - 46%

Tasting packs will be posted out to you, but may not arrive in time for the tastings. If you wish to collect the pack in Belfast to ensure you have it in time, please contact grace@belfastwhiskeyweek.com after you order.

Looking Back

The lineup alone was enough to draw a sharp intake of breath. Six fifty-millilitre samples arrived — or were collected in Belfast for those who didn't want to leave arrival to chance — and together they told a story that stretched from the misty shores of the Ariake Sea to the peaty hillsides of Islay. On one side: Nikka Tailored (43%), the Nikka Yoichi Sherry Wood Finish 2018 (46%), and the Nikka Miyagikyo paired improbably and brilliantly with a Lagavulin 9yo House of Lannister bottling at 46%. On the other: Cadenhead's Seven Stars (46%), The Balvenie Double Wood 12yo (40%), and that same Lagavulin expression anchoring the Scottish corner. It was, in the truest sense of the word, a curated conversation between traditions.

What made this MasterClass so rewarding was the structure of the comparison itself. Nikka, founded by Masataka Taketsuru — a Scotsman in spirit if not in birth, a man who crossed the sheugh of cultures to learn distilling in Scotland before bringing it home to Japan — has always carried a duchas of Scotch influence in its bones. Tasting the Yoichi Sherry Wood Finish alongside the Balvenie Double Wood illuminated that lineage beautifully: both expressions shaped by cask interaction, both rich and contemplative, yet separated by something ineffable in character. The Yoichi leaned into restraint and dried fruit; the Balvenie offered its familiar honeyed warmth with an almost pastoral generosity.

The Miyagikyo and Lagavulin pairing was where the evening shifted into something genuinely unexpected. The House of Lannister bottling of Lagavulin 9yo — a curiosity in its own right, born from the Game of Thrones collaboration — carried peat and brine with a younger, sharper urgency than the distillery's famous 16yo. Against the floral, lighter Miyagikyo, it created a tasting contrast that was almost theatrical. Attendees reported this pairing as the evening's talking point: a reminder that whisky, like seanchas, tells different stories depending on where you're standing when you listen.

The Cadenhead's Seven Stars offering gave the Scottish contingent an independent bottler's perspective — a voice outside the distillery narrative, shaped by the cask alone. Cadenhead's, as one of Scotland's oldest independent bottlers, brings an unvarnished honesty to its releases, and the Seven Stars was no different: characterful, direct, and all the more interesting for sitting beside the meticulous house-style precision of the Nikka Tailored. For those who've explored Session 83's deep dive into Irish whiskey heritage, there was a pleasing symmetry here — tradition and craft examined not in isolation but in dialogue.

Session 42 was exactly what a MasterClass at Belfast Whiskey Week should be: intellectually generous, sensory-rich, and gently provocative. It didn't declare a winner between Japan and Scotland — that would have been beside the point. Instead, it left attendees with a deeper appreciation for what each tradition does with water, grain, time, and place. Sláinte to that. If the East-versus-West dram debate still lingers in your imagination, our Whiskey Map offers a useful way to orient yourself across the world's great whisky regions — and if you're curious how this session sat within the wider BWW 2021 programme, the Bushmills Causeway Collection MasterClass offered equally rich territory closer to home.