Japan Whisky Press

Mars Komagatake single malt: reading the range

Three oak barrels with metal hoops standing side by side in a dark cellar

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Single Malt Komagatake (シングルモルト駒ヶ岳) is the malt whisky brand of the Mars Komagatake distillery in Nagano, owned by the Kagoshima drinks company Hombo Shuzo (本坊酒造). If you have only ever seen it on a shelf abroad, the range can look chaotic: dated editions, “Tsunuki Aging”, “Yakushima Aging”, “Double Cellars”, IPA casks, single casks and a butterfly on one label. This guide sorts them into a few families, explains what each name actually tells you, and shows how the lineup changed in 2025, when the dated annual edition gave way to a permanent core bottle.

It draws on Hombo Shuzo’s Japanese-language press releases and product pages. We have not tasted these whiskies, so where flavor comes up, the description is the producer’s, and we say so.

The short answer: one core bottle, then everything else

Since September 2025 the range has had a fixed center. Single Malt Komagatake, with no year on the label, is bottled at 45% ABV in 700ml (23.7 US fl oz). Hombo’s suggested Japanese retail price is ¥7,920 including tax. A 200ml size followed in mid-September 2026 at ¥2,750, which we covered in our report on the small bottle.

Everything else is a limited release, and it falls into four families:

  • Dated editions (Limited Edition 2018 to 2020, then 2021 to 2024 Edition). These were the flagship until 2025. They are now finished stock.
  • “Aging” releases. The spirit is distilled in Nagano but matured partly or wholly in Kagoshima or on Yakushima (屋久島).
  • Cask and theme series, such as the yearly IPA Cask Finish, the new Peated × Sherry and the Nagano-only Asagimadara no Sato (アサギマダラの里).
  • Single casks and anniversaries, including old 1980s and 1990s casks and the 2025 40th Anniversary Special Edition.

Why the core bottle took until 2025

In its July 29, 2025 release, Hombo explained the delay plainly. Komagatake had been sold “as a once-a-year edition in limited numbers,” with “quality as the top priority.” Distillation restarted in 2011 after a 19-year stop. Fourteen years later, “long maturation and careful stock management” had secured spirit of several different ages. That finally let the company supply a single malt all year.

A permanent bottle needs a steady stock of mature spirit from consecutive years, and Mars had a gap from 1992 to 2011. Our profile of Hombo Shuzo explains how a 1989 tax change pushed the company to stop distilling. A dated edition lets a producer bottle whatever it has each year. A core bottle commits it to making the same whisky again and again.

What “Komagatake” is supposed to taste like, in Hombo’s words

Hombo describes the target for the brand in one phrase: “clean and rich” (クリーンでリッチ). The 2025 release adds a second line that it says the core bottle “inherits” from the editions: “refreshing and delicate, yet full and rounded.”

The interesting part is how Hombo says it gets there. The core is not a single cask type or a single age. It is built “from the wide variety of spirits the distillery holds,” using “the art of blending” to keep the flavor consistent from batch to batch. In other words, consistency comes from the blender’s vatting, not from a fixed recipe. Hombo has not published the cask mix or the ages in the core bottle. Treat it as a no-age-statement whisky; our guide to Japanese whisky age statements explains why that is now common.

For the record, Hombo’s own description of the core mentions apple tea, apricot and ripe persimmon, a smooth texture and a long finish. Those are the producer’s words, not ours.

The mountain behind the name

The brand takes its name from Kiso Komagatake (木曽駒ヶ岳), the highest peak of the Central Alps. The distillery sits below it in Miyada (宮田村), at 798 meters. Hombo says it moved there in 1985 “in search of the ideal natural environment for whisky.” The site is cool and often foggy. Rain and snowmelt from peaks near 3,000 meters soak through granite and come out as mineral-rich water. A Nagano Prefecture visitor listing sums up the brand the same way: “snowmelt” and “deep fog.”

The packaging repeats the idea. The core label uses traditional Japanese patterns (wagara, 和柄) to show the forest at the foot of the mountains. Pale blue stands for the clear air and snowmelt, and the capsule is the deep green of the surrounding woods. Our Mars Komagatake distillery guide covers the site and its history in more depth. It still uses the older Mars Shinshu name, which the distillery dropped in 2024.

Decoding the “Aging” labels: cool distillation, warm maturation

This is the part most retailer listings skip. Hombo describes itself as a whisky maker with “two distilleries and three maturation sites.” It runs Mars Komagatake in Nagano and Mars Tsunuki (津貫) in Kagoshima, at the southern end of Kyushu. It also has an aging cellar on the subtropical island of Yakushima. Each site has a very different climate.

The “Aging” releases use that spread on purpose:

  • Komagatake Tsunuki Aging: Nagano spirit matured at the Tsunuki distillery in Kagoshima. Hombo’s page for the 2020 bottling puts the idea in one sentence: spirit “made in a cool environment, matured in a warm climate.” That bottling was 54% ABV, 5,161 bottles, mostly bourbon barrels, and ¥9,020 in Japan.
  • Komagatake Yakushima Aging: Nagano spirit matured on Yakushima. A single cask from this line, cask No. 2026, was named Best Japanese Single Cask at the 2023 World Whiskies Awards, according to Hombo’s award list.
  • Komagatake Double Cellars: a vatting of Nagano spirit aged in two places, Komagatake and the Yakushima cellar. The 2019 bottling was 47% ABV and 3,659 bottles, from American white oak, bourbon and sherry casks.

The usual rule in whisky is that the warehouse sits next to the stills. Hombo breaks it deliberately. Heat speeds up the exchange between spirit and wood, and a cool mountain site slows it down. So the same new make can turn out quite differently depending on where it ages. For a reader, the “Aging” name is a useful signal. It tells you the whisky is about place of maturation, not a different spirit. If you like this idea, the Tsunuki distillery guide shows the same logic from the Kagoshima end.

Single casks: where the awards sit

Many of the brand’s top competition results have gone to single casks rather than vatted bottlings. Hombo’s list includes 1990 and 1991 casks aged 27 and 28 years, and young casks from 2012 to 2014 at six or seven years old. These are one-barrel releases of roughly 180 to 600 bottles each. They are collector items, not a way to learn the house style. Our guide to single cask Japanese whisky explains how to read cask numbers and outturns.

The theme series: beer casks, a butterfly and “another face”

IPA Cask Finish

Hombo has released an IPA Cask Finish every year since at least 2020. The 2026 bottling explains the method. Bourbon-barrel Komagatake is finished in casks that previously held an India pale ale. The beer was brewed with plenty of hops at the Minami Shinshu Beer Komagatake brewery (南信州ビール駒ヶ岳醸造所). The 2026 release was 52% ABV and 2,700 bottles, at ¥9,900, and Hombo already lists it as discontinued. Hombo pitches it as a whisky for highballs. If that is how you drink, our highball guide explains the serve.

Asagimadara no Sato: a village release

This is the bottle most English sources miss entirely. The asagimadara (chestnut tiger butterfly) is a migratory butterfly. Every year in late September, large numbers stop in Miyada to feed on fujibakama, a native flowering plant. The village runs a photo contest about it, and Hombo puts the winning photograph on the box. The 2025 bottling is 48% ABV and ¥9,460. It uses bourbon barrels, American white oak, wine casks and cherry wood casks, among others.

The catch for readers abroad: Hombo says it is sold only within Nagano Prefecture, and is also offered as a Miyada hometown-tax (furusato nozei) gift. It is a bottle that ties the distillery to its village, and it is not designed for export.

Peated × Sherry: the first “other face”

In September 2026 Hombo launched a new limited series to show what it calls “another face” (もうひとつの表情) of Komagatake. The first release, Peated × Sherry, is peated Komagatake malt matured in sherry casks. It is 50% ABV, 12,000 bottles and ¥9,900. The label shows a Japanese serow, Nagano’s prefectural animal, and dawn colors. We covered the launch in our news report. The point for range-readers is simple. The core bottle is the “clean and rich” face. This series exists to show what the stock can do away from it.

Comparison: the Komagatake range at a glance

The table below uses Hombo’s own figures. Prices are suggested Japanese retail including tax. Bottles sold abroad will cost more after shipping, duty and margins.

Bottle Family and status ABV and run Japan price
Single Malt Komagatake Core, since September 2025 45%, not limited ¥7,920 (700ml), ¥2,750 (200ml)
Single Malt Komagatake Peated × Sherry Theme series, October 2026 50%, 12,000 bottles ¥9,900
Single Malt Komagatake IPA Cask Finish 2026 Theme series, discontinued 52%, 2,700 bottles ¥9,900
Single Malt Komagatake Asagimadara no Sato 2025 Village release, Nagano only 48% ¥9,460
Single Malt Komagatake 40th Anniversary Special Edition Anniversary, December 2025 50%, 5,000 bottles ¥29,700
Single Malt Komagatake 2024 Edition Last dated edition 50% ¥9,020
Single Malt Komagatake Tsunuki Aging 2020 Aging release, finished 54%, 5,161 bottles ¥9,020
Single Malt Komagatake Double Cellars 2019 Aging release, finished 47%, 3,659 bottles ¥8,800

The 40th Anniversary bottle and the missing decade

The 40th Anniversary Special Edition is worth a closer look, because its recipe tells the distillery’s story. Hombo vatted spirit from four decades: the 1980s, 1990s, 2010s and 2020s. It left out the 2000s, when the stills were idle. So the gap in the company’s history is literally in the bottle. It used bourbon, sherry and American white oak casks and bottled the whisky without chill filtration, at 50% ABV. At ¥29,700 it is the most expensive recent release on the list. Part of what you pay for is Nagano spirit distilled in the 1980s and early 1990s, before the long shutdown.

How to choose, and where to buy outside Japan

A simple way to approach the range:

  • New to Mars: buy the core Single Malt Komagatake. It is the reference point, and the 200ml size in Japan is an inexpensive first try.
  • Curious about maturation: look for any “Tsunuki Aging”, “Yakushima Aging” or “Double Cellars” bottling. Few Japanese producers can make this kind of release, because few run cellars this far apart.
  • Peat or sherry drinkers: the Peated × Sherry is the obvious pick, and at ¥9,900 it costs only about 25% more than the core in Japan.
  • Collectors: single casks and the 40th Anniversary are where the scarcity is. Dated editions are now finished stock, so their price abroad reflects scarcity, not a better whisky.

US, UK and the rest of the world

United States: Mars bottlings reach the US through an importer, and Komagatake releases appear at specialist shops rather than chain stores. Our US buying guide lists the retailers most likely to carry them.

United Kingdom and Europe: UK specialists such as Master of Malt have listed dated Komagatake editions. Our UK buying guide covers the main options.

Japan: the core bottle and current limited releases are the easiest to find in Japan. Our Tokyo buying guide covers the stores. Better still, visit Miyada. A Nagano Prefecture listing says the distillery offers a free self-guided tour of about 15 minutes from 9:00 to 16:00, with no booking required. The tasting bar charges a fee. Production usually pauses from about late June to late August, so the stills may be quiet in summer.

Hombo has not announced export plans for the 200ml bottle, the Peated × Sherry or the Asagimadara release. If you see them abroad at several times the Japanese price, you are buying from a reseller. Our guide to spotting fake or misdescribed Japanese whisky explains what to check.

FAQ

Q: Is Single Malt Komagatake the same whisky as the old dated editions?

A: No. The dated editions (Limited Edition 2018 to 2020, then 2021 to 2024 Edition) were vatted fresh each year from whatever stock was available. The core bottle launched in September 2025 is built to taste the same from batch to batch, using blending across many casks to keep the profile consistent.

Q: What does “Tsunuki Aging” or “Yakushima Aging” mean on a Komagatake label?

A: The spirit was distilled at Mars Komagatake in Nagano, then moved south to mature in a warmer climate, either at the Mars Tsunuki distillery in Kagoshima or the Yakushima aging cellar. It is the same distillery’s spirit. The label tells you where it aged, and that place shapes the whisky.

Q: Does the core Single Malt Komagatake have an age statement?

A: No. Hombo sells it without an age statement and has not published the ages or cask types used. It says only that the whisky draws on stock of several ages built up since distilling restarted in 2011, which is what made a year-round single malt possible in the first place.

Q: Is Mars Komagatake the same distillery as Mars Shinshu?

A: Yes. The distillery opened in Miyada, Nagano, in 1985 under the name Mars Shinshu and was renamed Mars Komagatake in 2024, matching the name of its single malt. Older bottles and many English-language sources still use the Shinshu name, so you will see both on labels and retailer listings.

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