MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

The best whiskey in the world is not Scottish, but Japan's Yamazaki

The Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 was described as “thick, dry, as rounded as a snooker ball” and was awarded a record-matching 97.5 points out of 100.

Japanese single malt whiskey has been named the world’s best for the first time by a prestigious guide, which also declined to place a scotch in its top ranking. The Yamazaki Single Malt Sherry Cask 2013 was described as “thick, dry, as rounded as a snooker ball” by Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible, which awarded it a record-matching 97.5 points out of 100. The latest guide was released Monday.

 Three bourbons from the U.S. took second, third and fourth places — William Larue Weller, Sazerac Rye 18 Year Old and Four Roses.

Whiskey has been made commercially in Japan since the 1920s after a student who studied in Glasgow, Masataka Taketsuru, moved home with his Scottish wife and helped start the Yamazaki distillery near Kyoto.

Yamazaki’s maker, Suntory Holdings, bought the U.S. maker of Jim Beam bourbon for nearly 16 billion earlier this year.

Murray said in his editorial for the guide that it was time for Scotch whisky distilleries to stop resting on their laurels.

“Where were the complex whiskeys in the prime of their lives? Where were the blends which offered bewildering layers of depth?” he wrote.

“It is time for a little dose of humility . . . to get back to basics. To realize that something is missing.”

Described as a whisky of “near incredible genius”, the Japanese whisky was awarded 97.5 marks out of 100 for “nose of exquisite boldness” and finish of “light, teasing spice”.

Costing £100, the no-age-statement whisky has been aged in casks which used to hold Oloroso Sherry.

Last year, Scotch whisky Glenmorangie Ealanta was named the 'best whisky in the world' by Murray.

The Whisky Bible 2015, which is now available to pre-order, contains taste notes for around 4,500 leading and lesser known whiskies.