In their excellent book Distilled, Joel Harrison and Neil Ridley have fun with the idea of a Nineties Japanese salesman trying to sell whisky from the Land of the Rising Sun in the Scottish Highlands.

It’s a Monty-Python-esque vision – a neat and quietly spoken man heading out into the wilds with his briefcase of samples and being laughed out of every pub in the fiercely patriotic Highlands.

Fast forward two decades and Japanese whisky is now taken very seriously indeed. Last month, I met up with Shinji Fukoyo, the chief blender of Suntory, owner of the Yamazaki and Hakushu distilleries, and one of the country’s two leading whisky companies, to discuss the reasons behind Japan’s soaring whisky reputation.