Confessions of a retailer: Uisuki

Nicolas Rua, co-founder of Japanese spirits retailer Uisuki, explains why an appetite for spirits is a cultural phenomenon in Japan.

Nicolas Rua, co-founder of Japanese spirits retailer Uisuki

Co-founder Frédéric de Francqueville and I have always been interested in spirits such as whisky, but also in Japan and Japanese culture. Then four years ago we opened our online shop dedicated to Japan and naturally we decided to sell Japanese whisky and other Japanese alcohol to mix our passion with business.

We are looking for the general quality of product and production process, the authenticity and passion of the producer for its products. We are not looking for products because of low prices.

As our online shop is dedicated to Japanese whiskies and other alcohol from Japan, a new spirit producer has to be Japanese. To get their products in our stock a producer has to be professional and well-informed about their products to give us as much detail as they can, and send samples for us to test because we never select a new product if we haven’t tasted it.

Our bestselling spirit products are Suntory whiskies, such as Yamazaki single malts or Hibiki blended whisky. But our bestselling product was Yamazaki 18 Year Old until it stopped being produced.

Our customer is mainly looking for what they want to be available, at reasonable prices. We hope to satisfy them by treating them as we would like to be treated. Also, we are trying to offer the largest selection of Japanese whiskies and meet high demand in Europe. We offer customers our expertise, which comes from our passion for spirits and Japan, which led us to edit a dedicated blog on Japanese whisky four years ago.

Thanks to our 100% Japanese positioning, the most challenging thing for us is to be supplied with good quantities of whisky, as Japanese producers are facing a major stock depletion and most of these products are either no longer produced or supplied in very low quantity. Over the past two years the demand for Japanese whiskies has grown.

Concerning our market, unfortunately nothing really exciting is expected in the coming months, except maybe all the new products produced by new Japanese distilleries. But in the spirits world in 2017 we think that rums and French whiskies could be the new trend.

In Japan, an appetite for spirits is a cultural thing. Spirits are consumed during meals to facilitate communication in the hyper-hierarchised Japanese society between friends, family or co-workers. Only a few Japanese people are real enthusiasts and appreciate spirits tasting; that’s why most of the spirits consumed in Japan are entry-level products. But the bestsellers in Japan are beer, saké, shochu, whisky mostly drunk in highballs, and fruit liqueurs such as Umeshu.

To stay one step ahead of the other retailers we try to offer products that we import by ourselves, can only be found in Japan, and which are not officially distributed in Europe. That’s how we are able to sell items that can be found nowhere but in Japan and on Uisuki.