1 BOTTLE X 70cl. 

66.6% vol.

62% vol.

WHY IT'S DIFFERENT

This Nine Leaves is part of an exceptional series from the distillery founded in 2013 by Yoshiharu Takeuchi in the Japanese city of Otsu.

At Nine Leaves, Yoshiharu did everything himself, from moving the barrels to bottling; then, at the end of 2023, he decided to close the distillery. A few months later, the entire stock of aging rums and the last batch of white rums were purchased by La Maison & Velier, who will continue an extraordinary evolving legacy.

The raw material that makes up Nine Leaves rums is also exceptional: pure water from an underground spring and Kokuto Sugar from the Okinawa archipelago. Fermentation lasts about four days, while distillation takes place in two Scottish Forsyth's pot stills: the first inspired by Chichibu and the second in the Glenmorangie style, with great balance that enhances the aromatic complexity. Once distilled, the rums are aged in different types of barrels, in two different places: a warehouse subject to significant temperature fluctuations or an abandoned mine, with high humidity and very low temperatures.

Nine Leaves White Last Drops 2023 is the last spirit bottled before the distillery's definitive closure, and one of the first five bottlings selected by La Maison & Velier, whose labels are inspired by a traditional card game: Unsun Karuta, dating back to the end of the 17th century, in the Edo period. Made up of 75 cards, the deck features the suits of cups, batons, swords and coins like the original but with a clearly Japanese touch, with the addition of a fifth, that of the guru, who uses the mitsudomoe as a symbol, a typical abstract motif similar to the comma. The peculiarity of the deck is that it also has cards with dragons, which have a different value depending on the game being played.

FOCUS

With its ten years of life, the Nine Leaves distillery has been a very important chapter in the history of Japanese rum. Born from the ambition and passion of one man, Yoshiharu Takeuchi, Nine Leaves is the concrete representation of the possibility of a world-class rum in Japan. The essence of tradition, craftsmanship and the striving for excellence, which have been indispensable for this great adventure, are not destined to end here. With the definitive closure of the distillery, it is now up to La Maison & Velier, which has taken over the stock of barrels, to carry on Yoshiharu's work to give rum lovers the opportunity to taste the evolution of these fantastic rums.

Five bottlings born from the friendship between Luca Gargano and Yoshiharu Takeuchi with packaging inspired by a traditional Japanese card game: Unsun Karuta

I could define Yoshiharu Takeuchi as the least Japanese Japanese I have ever known, as well as the most Japanese Japanese I have ever known. It portrays all the cultural principles that are the basis of the culture of his country and, at the same time, it is a firework. To dedicate himself to Rum, he left the management of the family company that supplied Toyota. For years, he was the only worker, employee and manager of Nine Leaves: from receiving orders to moving the barrels in the warehouse, from fermentation to distillation, from putting them in the barrels to applying the labels: he did it all. No one else has ever entered his distillery to carry out a work activity. With the death of his father, he decided to take over the family business in the automotive sector, thus ending the Nine Leaves project.

OVERVIEW

HISTORY

Nine Leaves rums are produced in a micro distillery in Otsu - in the prefecture of Shiga, near Kyoto - on the shores of Lake Biwa. Yoshiharu Takeuchi opened his micro distillery in 2013, after two years of work that saw him as the protagonist of the construction of the distillery. Takeuchi San is the descendant of an important family. The symbol found on the labels of his rums represents his family crest, composed of nine bamboo leaves, and this is where the name "nine leaves" comes from.

PRODUCTION METHOD

The water comes from a source inside an old abandoned mine. For fermentation, the founder and sole collaborator of the distillery Yoshisharu Takeuchi uses a particular strain of yeasts, used very rarely. The distillation is discontinuous, in two steps, done in two stills built by the Scottish Forsyths. It is aged for two years in barrels of virgin American oak, in the particular top of the Otsu area, hot in summer and cold in winter.