Nozawa Onsen Distillery (野沢温泉蒸留所), a craft gin producer in the ski-resort village of Nozawa Onsen (野沢温泉) in Nagano Prefecture, has completed its first single malt whisky. The distillery said on September 8, 2026 that the whisky is finished and will go on general sale in November 2026, after a private launch for village residents on September 26.
Update, September 26, 2026: The distillery has since confirmed the details. The whisky is called Barrel Hall Series, a three-year-old single malt bottled at 47% ABV in a 700ml bottle, with a suggested retail price of ¥13,200 including tax. It goes on sale on Friday, November 6, 2026, at the distillery, through its official online store and at selected retailers. The barley is malted in Australia, the home country of representative Philip Richards, and the whisky blends spirit from two different mashing methods, described below.
The distillery is calling the residents-only event a “Village Release.” Every household in Nozawa Onsen will receive a 50ml bottle, and the afternoon includes a performance by the local Dosojin (道祖神) taiko drumming group, tours of the production floor and short speeches by the distillery’s representative, Philip Richards, and the village mayor. The distillery said it wanted the community that has backed it since opening to taste the first whisky before anyone else.
From cannery to distillery
Nozawa Onsen Distillery opened in December 2022 in a renovated building in the village center that had housed a local cannery, a few minutes’ walk from the Oyu (大湯) public bathhouse. It uses Nozawa Onsen’s snowmelt water and local botanicals, and its gin has collected more than 20 international awards; at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition all four of its gins won gold. Whisky has been maturing alongside the gin in the village’s cool climate, and 2026 brings the first bottling.
The distillery has a tasting bar and gift shop on site, and said it plans to take the whisky “to Japan and then overseas,” though no export dates have been set. At the time of that first announcement it had not published the whisky’s strength, age or price; those details followed in a second release on September 26.
What is in the bottle
The September 26 release explains what sets the first whisky apart. Part of the spirit was made from malt ground in a US-made hammer mill, much finer than the grist most single malt distilleries use. The rest was made by what the distillery calls whole mash, an unfiltered process in which grain particles stay in the wash instead of being separated out as clear wort. The two spirits were then combined, and the distillery says that layering them is what gives the whisky its depth. Our Nozawa Onsen distillery guide covers the equipment in more detail, including the mash filter that makes the fine grind workable
The distillery’s own tasting notes describe a sweet, rich nose of honey and crème brûlée, a toffee-like palate with hints of fruitcake and chocolate, and a full finish of malt sweetness and spice. These are the producer’s words; we have not tasted the whisky. The distillery has not stated the cask types used or the number of bottles.
The bottle itself is part of the concept. Its surface reproduces the bark of a beech tree, taken from a 3D scan of a real trunk. Beech is the sacred tree of the village’s Dosojin (道祖神) Fire Festival, held every January and designated an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property of Japan. The whisky’s tagline, “Whisky Connects Generations,” comes from the way the festival hands roles, knowledge and responsibility from one age group to the next.
Why this matters
First single malts from new distilleries are where the next generation of Japanese whisky gets judged. A wave of small producers opened in the late 2010s and early 2020s, and many are only now passing the three-year minimum maturation that the industry’s Japanese whisky standard requires. Nozawa Onsen fits that pattern: it opened in December 2022, and its first release is a three-year-old. What makes it worth watching is that it has tried something technically different rather than following the Scottish template most Japanese malt distilleries use.
Most Japanese malt distilleries grind barley in a roller mill and run clear wort through a lauter or mash tun. A fine hammer-mill grind is more familiar from grain and brewing operations, and fermenting on the grain is more common in American whiskey than in single malt. Putting spirit from both approaches into one debut bottle is an unusual choice, and it gives drinkers a concrete reason to compare this whisky with other Nagano malts such as Komoro.
Two other details are worth noting. The barley is Australian; the Japanese standard governs where whisky is mashed, distilled, matured and bottled, not where the grain is grown, and the distillery has been open about the origin. And at ¥13,200 for a three-year-old 700ml bottle, it is priced as a limited craft release, not an everyday whisky.
For readers outside Japan
Nozawa Onsen is one of Japan’s most internationally known ski destinations, busy each winter with visitors from Australia, Britain, Singapore and the United States, and its network of free public hot-spring baths draws travelers year-round. That gives the distillery something most new Japanese whisky makers lack: a steady flow of English-speaking visitors who can walk in and buy a bottle at the source.
For now that is the main way to get it. The November release is a domestic one, and the volume from a first bottling at a small distillery is usually small. Nozawa Onsen joins a growing group of Nagano distilleries — alongside Mars Shinshu and the newer Komoro (小諸) distillery, which released its own debut single malt this year — turning the prefecture’s highland climate into a whisky region. Whether any of it reaches shops in the United States or Europe will depend on how much the distillery can spare once its home market is served.
Two practical points. First, the November 6 release names three sales channels: the distillery, its official online store and selected retailers. The press release does not say whether the online store ships abroad, so check before ordering, and expect Japanese rules on shipping alcohol. Second, if you are visiting this winter, the tasting bar and shop sit a few minutes’ walk from the Oyu bathhouse in the village center. The Dosojin Fire Festival is held in mid-January, traditionally on January 15, when the village is at its busiest, so book accommodation early. Flying out through Tokyo, our guides to buying whisky in Tokyo and Narita duty free cover where small-distillery bottles tend to turn up.
Sources: Nozawa Onsen Distillery via PR TIMES, September 8, 2026 (Japanese); Nozawa Onsen Distillery via PR TIMES, September 26, 2026 (Japanese); Nozawa Onsen Distillery, Our Story.