Japan Whisky Press

Tanzawa distillery: Kanagawa’s charcoal-filtered newcomer

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Tanzawa (丹沢) Distillery is a small whisky maker in the mountains of Yamakita (山北), in the far west of Kanagawa (神奈川) prefecture. It opened in 2024, sells three blended whiskies made from Scottish malt and grain spirit that it filters through Japanese charcoal, and began distilling its own spirit in January 2026. None of its current bottles qualifies as Japanese whisky under the industry labeling standard. That changes, at the earliest, in 2029.

Almost nothing about Tanzawa exists in English. This guide is built from the distillery’s own Japanese-language site, local Kanagawa press and Japanese trade coverage. It covers why a prepared-foods company built a distillery beside a 2,000-year-old cedar, what its charcoal method is meant to do, how to read its labels, and why a second, unrelated “Tanzawa Distillery” keeps turning up in search results.

Where Tanzawa is, and why the place matters

The distillery sits at Nakagawa (中川) 822-1 in Yamakita, upstream of Lake Tanzawa (丹沢湖) and next to Hoki-sugi (箒杉), a Japanese cedar designated a national natural monument and said to be around 2,000 years old. The operator describes the site as lying inside the Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park (丹沢大山国定公園), and calls a distillery inside a protected park unusual in Japan and abroad.

The company makes three specific claims about the location.

Water first

“The essence of whisky lives in the water,” the distillery writes. It says it went looking for water low in off-flavors with a delicate mineral balance, and dug its own well on the site to get it. The search took time. According to the Ashigara edition of Town News (タウンニュース), the parent company began scouting locations in 2018 and found the Yamakita plot the following year.

Altitude and temperature swing

The distillery puts its elevation at about 600 meters. Its stated reasoning is the classic one for cask aging: large swings between warm and cold seasons push spirit into the wood and draw it back out, so a mountain site should move whisky through the cask more actively than a mild coastal one. Maturation stock is held at a separate warehouse in Kurokura (玄倉), a short drive away.

The “glen” idea

The brand also makes a naming argument. Many Scottish distilleries carry “Glen” in their names, meaning a valley in mountainous country. Tanzawa, the company says, carries the same meaning. It is a marketing line, but it tells you what the founders were reaching for: a Scottish-style mountain distillery, placed deliberately away from Japan’s big industrial sites.

From prepared foods to whisky: the founding story

Tanzawa did not start as a craft project. It grew out of DELI Motto (DELIもっと), a prepared-foods company in Ota ward, Tokyo, that added a food import and export business in 2016. Before it built anything in Kanagawa, it sold a private-label whisky called Shingen (信玄), made under contract by a company in Yamanashi. Town News put those shipments at about 28,000 bottles a year, mostly to China.

The company wanted more: the local paper described its goal as shipping “our own whisky.” Construction began in February 2023 and the plant was finished in January 2024, according to the distillery’s own timeline. It started operating in July 2024. In March 2026 the whisky business was spun off into a separate company, Zeroichi Whisky (株式会社ゼロイチウイスキー), whose English name is Zero One Whisky. Its brand line, ゼロから価値を蒸溜する, means roughly “distilling value from zero.”

The person behind it is Mamoru Hashiguchi (橋口守), who ran the whisky division and is now president of Zeroichi Whisky. At the 2024 opening he told Town News that Yamakita’s water, temperature and humidity suit whisky making, and thanked local residents for their help. Factory manager Kazuhiro Fujii (藤井和宏) said he wanted the whisky to become established quickly as a product of Yamakita and “loved locally too.”

Japanese whisky trade site BARREL later placed the move in a wider context. Exports of Japanese whisky to China have fallen year on year, while China builds its own distilleries. A business that depended on contract exports to one market has strong reasons to own its production and its brand. You can follow the same pattern in our report on Tanzawa’s switch to in-house distillation.

Bincho charcoal and the “food whisky” philosophy

The most distinctive thing about Tanzawa is not its location. It is a decision about what the whisky should not be.

Rounding off the edges

Hashiguchi explained the thinking to BARREL. Plenty of producers make highly individual whiskies, he said, but people’s likes and dislikes split sharply over them. His question was whether the harshness of alcohol could be rounded off in a short time. He tried filtering spirit through stone, treating it with ultrasound and freezing it. He settled on Kishu binchotan (紀州備長炭), the dense white charcoal from Wakayama that Japanese cooks use for grilling and that is also used to treat drinking water.

The aim is a whisky to drink with a meal, not a statement bottle for after dinner. BARREL’s writer summed it up neatly: the brand’s individuality is that it refuses to shout.

What the BCF method claims

The distillery calls its process BCF, for Bincho Charcoal Filtering. In its own words, the spirit is filtered slowly through Kishu binchotan using dedicated equipment to remove off-notes and give a rounded, smooth texture. It stresses that the goal is not to change the spirit heavily but to “polish” it, and says its focus is mineral balance. The charcoal, it says, is held to remove impurities while adding minerals.

Two points are worth knowing. First, charcoal filtering in whisky is not new; Tennessee whiskey’s Lincoln County Process is the best-known example, and Japanese shochu makers also use charcoal. What is unusual is applying binchotan to finished blended whisky as the core of a brand. Second, Tanzawa does not chill-filter. Its retail listing warns that sediment or haze can appear, and that tiny specks of charcoal may be found in the bottle. The company presents both as signs of a natural product, not defects.

The new still

On its own distillation, the company gives little detail. It describes a process meant to carry aromas from the raw materials efficiently into the spirit, and explains it with an image of aroma-bearing alcohol forming bubbles that burst and release fragrance. It does not publish the type, number or size of its stills, its mash bill, its yeast or its annual distilling volume, and we have not guessed at them here.

The current range: three blended whiskies

All three current bottles share a long official name built from the same parts: Blended Whisky, a cask finish, Bincho Charcoal Filtering, and “The First.” Each is 700ml (23.7 US fl oz) at 46% ABV, made from Scottish malt and grain whisky, finished in cask by the distillery and reduced with Tanzawa water. Shop price at release was reported at 5,500 yen, about $37 or £28.

Bottle Finish Serve the distillery suggests Released
Tanzawa Sherry Sherry cask Straight, rocks, highball April 2025
Tanzawa Bourbon Bourbon cask Highball, rocks, mizuwari April 2025
Tanzawa Spanish Spanish oak cask Straight, rocks, twice up August 2026

We have not tasted these whiskies. The distillery’s own notes describe the Sherry finish as having a raisin-like sweetness, the Bourbon finish as honeyed and fruity with vanilla and green apple, and the Spanish oak finish as dried fruit with cinnamon and spice. Read those as the producer’s descriptions, not independent assessments.

The serving suggestions are more telling than the notes. The lighter bourbon-cask bottle is pitched first as a highball and mizuwari, the two serves that dominate Japanese dining tables, which fits the food-whisky brief. If you want background on the casks themselves, our guide to Japanese whisky cask types explains how sherry, bourbon and Spanish oak differ.

Is Tanzawa whisky “Japanese whisky”? Reading the label

This is the question most English-language buyers will have, and the answer today is no.

Under the labeling standard of the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association, in force since 2021, a whisky sold as Japanese whisky must be fermented, distilled, aged for at least three years and bottled in Japan. Spirit made abroad and only blended or finished in Japan does not qualify. Our explainer on what counts as Japanese whisky sets out the full rules.

Tanzawa’s three current bottles use Scottish malt and grain spirit, and the label states it. The company does not call them Japanese whisky. That puts them in the same broad category as many other bottles made in Japan from imported spirit, which we cover in what “world blended whisky” means on a Japanese label.

The 2029 line

The distillery’s own news log records the start of in-house distillation on January 21, 2026. Spirit laid down that day cannot reach the three-year minimum until January 2029, so any Tanzawa bottle legally able to call itself Japanese whisky is at least that far away. Town News had reported in 2024 that the company planned to make whisky from barley “in about three years,” and the timeline has broadly held.

Why it matters to you

Tanzawa today is a Japanese-finished blend of Scotch whisky, priced as an everyday bottle. The bottles to watch are the ones from 2029 onward; the current finishes show the style the company is building toward.

The other “Tanzawa Distillery”

Search for Tanzawa Distillery in Japanese and you will find two websites using the same name. They are not connected.

The second belongs to Moroto Forestry (諸戸林業), a timber company in Hadano (秦野), Kanagawa, that has planted forest inside the same quasi-national park since 1898 and manages about 938 hectares of cypress and cedar. Its site, titled “Tanzawa Whisky Distillery,” describes a planned distillery fed by Tanzawa spring water, and says it is “Coming soon.” Its most recent notice is a 2021 call for architectural design proposals. BARREL also noted the overlap and reported that the plan’s operating date is unknown.

Project Operator Location Status
Tanzawa Distillery (Yamakita) Zeroichi Whisky Nakagawa, Yamakita Operating since 2024; distilling since 2026
Tanzawa Whisky Distillery (Hadano) Moroto Forestry group Tanzawa-Terayama, Hadano Planned; site says “Coming soon”

Anything you can buy today is from the Yamakita distillery.

Kanagawa’s place on the whisky map

Kanagawa is better known for Yokohama and Kamakura than for whisky. The Japan Whisky Information Center counted two working whisky distilleries in the prefecture as of September 2024, according to a Japanese craft whisky directory: Tanzawa, and Shonan (湘南) Distillery in Chigasaki (茅ヶ崎), run by the sake brewer Kumazawa Shuzo (熊澤酒造).

The prefecture also has a lost chapter. Kanagawa was home to the Kawasaki (川崎) grain distillery, long closed, whose remaining stock was later bottled in a handful of small releases. Our Kawasaki distillery guide tells that story. For the national picture, see our list of Japanese whisky distilleries.

Tanzawa’s approach also shows how it intends to sell. Its news page lists stalls at Yokohama festivals, beach events, a surfing contest, Tokyo’s Koenji Awa Odori and local Yamakita fairs. That is closer to a food brand’s playbook than a typical distillery’s, which fits the company’s roots.

Where to buy and how to visit

Tanzawa is hard to find outside Japan. Its earlier plans said most output would go overseas, but as of this writing we could not find the current Tanzawa range listed by any retailer in the US, the UK or the EU.

  • US: no retail listing found. Shipping whisky from Japan to the US is restricted, so private imports are not a practical route. Our guide to importing Japanese whisky from Japan explains the rules.
  • UK and EU: no retail listing found. Watch specialist importers for the first in-house releases from 2029.
  • In Japan: the bottles are sold at the events the distillery attends around Kanagawa and Tokyo, and through Yamakita’s furusato nozei (hometown tax donation) program, which is designed for taxpayers in Japan. Our guide to buying Japanese whisky in Tokyo covers specialist shops worth checking.

Visiting takes planning. The distillery is about 50 minutes by car from the Oi-Matsuda interchange on the Tomei Expressway, or about an hour by bus from Shin-Matsuda station to the Hokizawa (箒沢) stop. Its site lists events and tastings on a calendar rather than a standing tour schedule, so check there before you go.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Is Tanzawa whisky made in Japan?

A: Partly. The current bottles are blended and cask-finished in Yamakita, Kanagawa, and reduced with local well water, but the malt and grain spirit is Scottish. Under Japan’s 2021 labeling standard they are not Japanese whisky. In-house spirit, distilled since January 2026, can qualify from 2029.

Q: What is binchotan charcoal filtering?

A: Tanzawa filters its whisky slowly through Kishu binchotan, a dense Japanese charcoal, with dedicated equipment. The distillery calls it the BCF method and says the aim is to remove off-notes and round the texture while keeping the spirit’s character. Its founder tested stone, ultrasound and freezing before choosing charcoal.

Q: How much does Tanzawa whisky cost?

A: Japanese trade coverage reported a shop price of 5,500 yen, about $37 or £28, for a 700ml bottle at 46% ABV. Prices through Japan’s hometown tax donation program are higher because they include the donation. We found no retail listing in the US, UK or EU.

Q: Are the two Tanzawa distilleries the same company?

A: No. The operating Tanzawa Distillery in Yamakita is run by Zeroichi Whisky, spun off from the food company DELI Motto. A separate “Tanzawa Whisky Distillery” website belongs to Moroto Forestry in Hadano, whose plan is still marked “Coming soon.” Any bottle on sale today comes from Yamakita.

Sources

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