12 THE NAVIGATOR | FEATURE LAND OF THE RISING SUN Part of that success has been thanks to La Maison du Whisky’s prescient embrace of Japanese whisky. “It was only through travelling and meeting people that I really came across Japanese whisky,” recalls Benitah, as frequent travels to Bowmore, then owned by Suntory, led renowned distiller Jim McEwan to introduce Thierry to the realm of Japanese whisky. By 2000, La Maison du Whisky was working closely with Ben Nevis Distillery and each Christmas Thierry would receive a Christmas gift. A salmon one year. Perhaps a haggis another. In 2000 he received three bottles of Japanese whisky. “I was completely amazed. It was really revolutionary for me. Those three whiskies were just perfect. The cask strength, 10 years old, was absolutely amazing.” The whiskies were from Nikka, which owned Ben Nevis Distillery, and Thierry wanted in. “I said, can I buy a pallet? So we started to import pallet after pallet. We went from one container to two to 10. It was crazy.” Until 2005 the best-selling whisky for La Maison du Whisky was Redbreast 12-year-old. That year, it became Nikka. In 2007 La Maison du Whisky was asked to represent Nikka in Europe, and the company soon generated 95 percent of the brand’s sales outside of Japan “For me it was a crazy opportunity,” remembers Thierry. The good times lasted for seven years, but as demand for Japanese whisky grew within Japan volumes available for export to Europe were cut back. As more Nikka stayed in Japan, from 2014 to 2022 LMDW received an allocation, and the growth – until then 50 percent year-on-year – ground to a halt. “It was very frustrating,” remembers Thierry. “Although the value of Nikka continued to grow, the volumes didn’t.” But with Nikka La Maison du Whisky became the experts on Japanese whisky, opening the door to represent iconic brands like Chichibu and Mars in the European market. Nikka Distillery Mars Shinshu Distillery
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