Membership

Houses you have not met in the UK.Four times a year.

Three bottles to taste. Then full bottles of what you love.

Our story

Keiko and Mark on a deck overlooking Mount Fuji

Our story.

I met Mark twenty years ago, left Japan for Britain, and married a Scotsman who loves whisky and spirits. For twenty years we have travelled Japan each year — from Hokkaido in the north to Okinawa in the south, and everywhere between — tasting the country’s spirits and its culinary side. Not only the famous names: the small houses down quiet roads.

Each trip we brought bottles home for friends in the UK. They kept asking where they could buy what we had just poured — the amazing ones, the tiny batches, the bottles we had carried back from Japan.

So we set up Spirits of Japan. Between us we know Japan, how to move goods across the world, and how to build this. The best bottles we have ever tasted were small and almost gone. That is the house we look for. We find them and bring them here. Members get the allocation. Then anyone who loved it can buy more.

Keiko

The other half of the story

We are building this with Japan’s small houses.

Keiko’s friendships only matter if distillers want a partner they can trust: someone who opens the UK without the export headache, tells their story properly, and turns a tasting into real full-bottle demand — not another anonymous shelf.

If you make spirits in Japan, or know a house that should be here, this page is for you.

For distillers →

How we choose

Small and independent
Independent houses, not the famous names. A few thousand bottles a year, and only a hundred that reach us.
A real history
Many began as sake brewers, generations back, and know how to distil. We look for makers with a past, not a still bought last year.
Proven at home
Recognised in Japan, often awarded, long before they reach Britain. And we taste every one ourselves before it goes in a box.

How it works

The yearFour times a year. A new house each time.
The bottlesThree to taste, from a maker you have not met in the UK.
ThenFull bottles of what you love. No obligation either way.
The listFree. No card. Members hear first.

Taste first. Buy after.

Join the waitlist
Free. No card, no commitment.
Three bottles to taste
A house you have not met in the UK. Four times a year.
Then buy what you love
Full bottles. Only if you want them.

A community of lovers

This is a club, not a subscription you forget. A standing community of people who love what Japan quietly makes, sharing the bottles, the notes, rooms across the UK, and once a year, Japan itself. The box is only how it starts.

Member price on the full bottles
Taste it in the box, then buy the full bottle at a members’ price below anyone selling it here. Often, no one else here sells it at all.
Bottles Britain doesn’t have
For most of these houses we are the only importer. You will not find them in a shop here.
Your own number
Founding members are 1 to 300. Your number, and your founder’s price, are yours for as long as you stay.
A page for every spirit
Members log their tasting notes and scores on each bottle, for members only. Read what the club made of it before you buy the full one, and the houses we all love come back.
Bring someone in
Every founding member can bring one guest. The best of this spreads by word of mouth.
The room, and the trip
Tastings in the UK with the people who made the bottles. And once a year, Japan.

Founding waitlist

Join the waitlist

Free. We write when the first houses are signed. Founding members hear first.

You’re on the list.

We’ll write when the doors open.

Questions

What is this?

Four times a year, three bottles from a house you have not met in the UK. Taste first. Then buy full bottles of what you love.

What does it cost?

The waitlist is free. No card. You pay only if you choose to buy.

When do bottles arrive?

When we have signed houses we love. We would rather be slow than pour something ordinary.

I don’t know shochu at all.

Good. That is the point. Every bottle comes with its story.

Is this a whisky investment?

No. Everything we sell is for drinking. We make no promises about value and never will.

Where do you deliver?

The UK, to adults only. Age is checked at the door. Europe later.

Houses you have not met in the UK.Four times a year.

Our story.

We are building this with Japan’s small houses.

How we choose

Small and independent

A real history

Proven at home

How it works

Taste first. Buy after.

Join the waitlist

Three bottles to taste

Then buy what you love

A community of lovers

Member price on the full bottles

Bottles Britain doesn’t have

Your own number

A page for every spirit

Bring someone in

The room, and the trip

Join the waitlist

Questions