Japan is dealing with a shortage of whiskey that its bad news for lovers of Suntory’s aged offerings.

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Here’s what you need to know about the whiskey shortage in Japan.

• The shortage is due to the whiskey market slowing in the 80’s and producers not setting back as much of the drink for aging.
• As a result, several different blends of aged whiskey are no longer available outside of the secondhand market.
• The newest aged whiskey to suffer from this is Suntory’s Hibiki 17.
• The company says that it is discontinuing the blend as it doesn’t have enough that will be ready in time for customers.
• This will happen over time as the aged whiskey is slowly phased out of production and starts disappearing from store shelves.
• This leaves the company with only one single core blend of aged whiskey: Hibiki 21.
• Despite these troubles, Suntory has been investing in producing more aged whiskey.
• It started this process back in 2013 with a $182 million investment.
• There are also rumors claiming that aged whiskey will start returning to stock after the 2020 Olympics.
• Whiskey companies in Japan are also pushing more non-aged whiskey with new brands to draw in customers.

“It will take quite a long time before we can restart sales of the products,” a spokesperson for Suntory told Nikkei Asian Review. “We will give top priority to quality, and market the products by emphasizing quality over quantity.”

As of this writing, William White did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.