Nine Leaves

This series of five bottlings produced between 2017 and 2020 pays homage to Japanese distillery Nine Leaves, which was shut down in 2023. Founded a decade prior by Yoshiharu Takeuchi in the town of Otsu—located on the shores of Lake Biwa, fifteen kilometres from Kyoto—Nine Leaves distilled black sugar (kokuto) rums in pot stills. In 2024, Velier purchased the last remaining stores of white rum from its Forsyths stills, as well as all the casks stored within its cellars, which had been built inside an abandoned mine.

A sequel of sorts to the first range unveiled by Velier in 2024, this collection (a nod to a famous range of Japanese whiskies) showcases new Unsun Karuta cards. Comprising 75 cards, this traditional Japanese game is a more complex and sophisticated version of Tenshō Karuta (48 cards), which emerged during the Edo era under the influence of Portuguese traders. Like other card games, Unsun Karuta was banned by the Japanese government in the 17th century. This ban was only lifted in 1868, with the reopening of Japan’s borders and the beginning of the Meiji era. The oldest existing deck dates back to the Tenshō era (1573-1591), and is preserved at the Miike Karuta Memorial Hall in the port town of Ōmuta (Fukuoka prefecture), on the shores of the Ariake sea.