Our Selection
Japanese Spirits in Naples
Sixteen feet of shelf, not three. Sake, shochu, and Japanese whisky, and every bottle on the floor is $4 to taste before you commit.
Why the Selection Is This Deep
One full side of an aisle.
Most shops around here give Japanese spirits about three feet of shelf. We give it sixteen: one full side of an aisle. That happened because people kept asking for it. There is a real and growing audience for Japanese spirits in this part of Florida, and it was not being served locally, so we kept buying deeper every time somebody came in looking for something we did not have yet.
The shelf spans categories rather than concentrating on one. Sake, shochu, and Japanese whisky sit alongside Japanese takes on other spirits, so you can wander across the whole range in a single visit instead of picking from a handful of labels.
What You'll Find
Three shelves worth knowing.
Sake
Brewed from rice rather than distilled, which makes sake closer in process to beer than to whisky, even though it drinks nothing like either. Styles range widely depending on how much the rice is polished before brewing, and plenty of them are meant to be served chilled rather than warm. If your only experience with sake is the hot cup that came with dinner, there is a lot here you have not met yet.
Shochu
Distilled, and usually bottled at a lower strength than whisky or vodka. What it is made from is the interesting part: barley, sweet potato, rice, and buckwheat all produce shochu, and each one tastes distinctly different from the others. It is the everyday drink across much of Japan and it is still largely undiscovered here.
Japanese Whisky
Built on the Scotch tradition rather than the American one, which is why it tends to drink cleaner and more delicate than bourbon. Japanese distillers took the method and then diverged: different oak, different blending practice, different priorities about balance. The result is recognizably whisky and unmistakably its own thing.
Taste Before You Commit
Same $4 per taste. No exceptions.
Every Japanese bottle on the floor is $4 per taste, same as everything else in the store. A taste is 10 mL served in a one ounce glass, poured at the bar so you can compare side by side. That is how the tasting works here, and it is how somebody curious about shochu or sake finds out what they actually like without buying four bottles to get there.
On the Shelf
What's on the shelf right now
Whisky
- Bikoku 12 Year
- Maen 12 Year
- Hibiki Harmony
- Hibiki 21 Year
- Yamazaki 12 Year
- Kaiyo The Rye
- Kaiyo The Unicorn
- Tenjaku Sherry Cask
Vodka
- Oka Yuzu
- Haku
- Haku Yuzu
Gin
- Senjo Sakura
- Kyuri
- Awayuki Strawberry
Sake and shochu are stocked as well, and the selection rotates. Call ahead if you are looking for something specific.
Come see the aisle.
Sixteen feet of it. We will pour you something you have never tried.