Category: Distilleries
Profiles of whisky distilleries across Japan.
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Tanzawa distillery: Kanagawa’s charcoal-filtered newcomer
Tanzawa Distillery in Yamakita, Kanagawa: its binchotan-filtered blends, the food-whisky idea behind them, and when it can sell Japanese whisky.
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Helios distillery: Okinawa’s rum maker and its whisky
Helios in Nago, Okinawa, began as a rum distillery in 1961, sold whisky under US rule, and now makes Kyoda…
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Nozawa Onsen distillery: whisky in a Nagano ski village
Nozawa Onsen distillery: an Australian-founded gin maker in a Nagano ski village, its hammer mill and whole-mash whisky, and the…
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Hida Takayama distillery: a sake brewer’s whisky school
How Takayama sake brewer Funasaka Shuzoten turned a closed mountain school into Gifu’s first whisky distillery, how it makes spirit,…
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Ise distillery: a shochu house and its 20-year whisky plan
Ise Distillery in Mie: why Kamiji isn’t labeled Japanese whisky, the 250-bottle Single Malt Ise, and a malt timed to…
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Yamaga distillery: Kumamoto’s hot-spring town whisky
Why a barrel-aged shochu group built Kumamoto’s first malt distillery, how a lantern dance shaped its spirit, and where to…
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Kuju distillery: whisky on the Oita highlands
Kuju Distillery in Oita: a liquor shop owner’s dream on a closed sake brewery site, Forsyths stills, Douglas fir washbacks…
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Kirishima Yokogawa distillery: Kagoshima shochu goes malt
A 1949 shochu house in Kirishima turned whisky maker in 2023: first-runnings wort, shochu fermentation, stainless stills, and what you…
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Niseko distillery: Hakkaisan’s whisky bet in Hokkaido
Why Niigata sake brewer Hakkaisan built Niseko distillery in Hokkaido, how it makes its spirit, and why no Niseko whisky…
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Kyoto Miyako whisky: what is actually in the bottle
Kyoto Miyako makes the Nishijin silk-wrapped Kyoto Whisky. What the maker says is in each bottle, and why a Kyoto-only…
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Hombo Shuzo: the shochu family behind Mars whisky
How a Kagoshima shochu maker founded in 1872 built Mars whisky, nearly quit after the 1989 tax reform, and now…
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Sasanokawa Shuzo and Yamazakura: reading the range
The Fukushima sake house behind Yamazakura, the Hanyu casks it kept, and which of its bottles actually count as Japanese…