Nagahama Roman Blended

What it is

A blended whisky carrying the Nagahama Roman name, from the company behind Nagahama Distillery in Shiga. Nagahama Roman Beer Co. founded the distillery in 2016 to mark twenty years of its brewery, which is where the name comes from.

Where it comes from

This is the honest position: Nagahama publishes plenty about its single malts and about the Amahagan range, but very little about this bottling. We haven't found a producer statement on composition, on whether imported whisky is used, or on whether it meets the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association labelling standard.

What we can say is that Nagahama's track record cuts both ways. The Amahagan blends openly use imported malt and the company says so on the label. The single malts are its own distillate. A blended whisky under the Roman name could be either, and without a source we won't guess. If provenance matters to you on this one, ask the retailer to point at a producer page.

How it's made

Nagahama is the smallest whisky distillery in Japan, running short-necked alembic-style stills in a tiny space on the shore of Lake Biwa, attached to a craft brewery and restaurant. Its own spirit is thick and malty. Master blender Yusuke Yahisa handles the blending across the range. Cask information for this bottling isn't published.

What to expect

Expect something on the lighter, more approachable end, as blended whiskies from small Japanese producers generally are. Without published specifications we'd rather not describe a flavour profile in detail, because you'd be reading guesswork.

How it compares

Against the Amahagan World Malt editions, those are the Nagahama blends with a documented story. Against Nagahama's single malts, including The First Batch and the various cask releases, those are the distillery's own spirit and the better starting point if you want to know what Nagahama actually tastes like.