Rita, his wife, who had experienced joys and sorrows together with Mr. Taketsuru under the password "To make the genuine whisky in Japan", died in 1961.
Since then Mr. Taketsuru shut himself up in the laboratory and compounded unblended malts again and again, and finally he made the new whisky "Super Nikka" the next year.
"Super" has the meaning of his belief that he had pursued and raised the finest quality without any compromise for 10 years with his late wife Rita.
The bottle is peculiar with a round shape which did not fit to mass production then. He created the shape as the finest wedding dress, thinking Rita.

Super Nikka is mild, but tastes thick and strong.
Mr. Minowa, a whisky ambassador of Asahi Beer, says "It makes us associate Lady Rita who had consideration and guts, helping Mr. Taketsuru of dream abroad faraway from her home country.

No sooner than entering the motorway, appeared evergreen grasslands on both sides and they lasted forever with fields of rape blossoms, daffodil fields and grazing sheep here and there.
Our bus got down to a local road at the town of Pitlochry after 2-hour driving north from Edinburgh. This area was the border between Lowland and Highland.
The entrance to Blair Athol Distillery was right in front.

A little stream ran in a remote country, and there were old-fashioned buildings covering it. Fresh and quiet beauty.
"It is really a village of Scotch whisky!", I talked to myself. There was somewhat such a fragrant smell around.

I hear there are about 120 distilleries in Scotland. Most of them are under the main blend makers.

Like so many others, this Blair Athol Distillery was Bell's subsidiary. But it was so proud of single-malt that the staff guide did not want to talk about the relations with Bell's.

"Whisky" is a mispronunciation of the Goedelic "Usquebaugh", the word-origin of which is French "Eau de Vie".
According to Wikipedia:

All Scotch whisky was originally made from malted barley. Commercial distilleries began introducing whisky made from wheat and rye in the late 18th century. Scotch whisky is divided into five distinct categories: single malt Scotch whisky, single grain Scotch whisky, blended malt Scotch whisky (formerly called "vatted malt" or "pure malt"), blended grain Scotch whisky, and blended Scotch whisky.

All Scotch whiskies must be aged in oak barrels for at least three years. Any age statement on a bottle of Scotch whisky, expressed in numerical form, must reflect the age of the youngest whisky used to produce that product. A whisky with an age statement is known as guaranteed-age whisky.

Malt whisky is made by putting malt into a kiln in the first processing and drying it by peat. During this process its smell is created by the smoke of peat. The differences of peat quantity specialize the taste of each distillery.

We were guided from the germination process of barleys to the last process of aging in oak casks.