Mars Shinshu, officially the Mars Komagatake Distillery, is a whisky distillery in Nagano Prefecture run by the shochu maker Hombo Shuzo (本坊酒造). Sitting at an elevation of around 798 meters at the foot of Kiso Komagatake in Japan’s Central Alps, it is the highest whisky distillery in the country, and its cold mountain climate and soft, granite-filtered water are central to how the distillery describes its own whisky. Mars Shinshu is also one of the few Japanese distilleries with a genuine gap in its production history: it stopped distilling entirely for nearly two decades before restarting in 2011.
That restart, and the distillery’s connection to one of the founding figures of Japanese whisky, make Mars Shinshu a useful case study alongside our guide to the Japanese whisky labeling standard, since its stills and methods trace back further than most currently operating distilleries in Japan.
History: a 1949 license, a false start, and a 2011 restart
Hombo Shuzo, a shochu producer originally from Kagoshima Prefecture, obtained a whisky-distilling license in 1949 with help from Kiichiro Iwai (岩井喜一郎), an engineer whose still designs, based on records left by Masataka Taketsuru (竹鶴政孝), also influenced Nikka’s Yoichi distillery. Hombo built its Shinshu Distillery in Nagano Prefecture in 1985, moving pot stills that Iwai had designed for an earlier Hombo distillery in Yamanashi to the new mountain site, where they have since been replaced with exact replicas of the originals.
The distillery’s history was not continuous. Production stopped in 1992 as demand for Japanese whisky slumped through the 1990s and 2000s, a period that closed or paused output at several Japanese distilleries. Mars Shinshu resumed distilling in 2011, as the global reappraisal of Japanese whisky began driving renewed investment across the industry, making it one of a small number of distilleries that can describe their current output as a genuine restart rather than continuous production.
That gap matters for how readers should think about the brand’s back catalog. Whisky bottled or distilled before 1992 comes from a genuinely different production era than anything released after the 2011 restart, with nearly two decades separating the two. Collectors and reviewers often treat pre-1992 Mars Shinshu releases as a separate, older category from the current Iwai and Komagatake lines, in much the same way that whisky from other paused-and-restarted distilleries tends to be discussed in two distinct chapters rather than as one unbroken lineage.
What Mars Shinshu makes: high altitude, old still designs
The distillery’s site was chosen deliberately for its environment: soft water filtered through granite soil, meltwater from the surrounding Alps, and consistently cool, foggy mountain air at nearly 800 meters above sea level. Hombo describes this high-altitude, low-temperature setting as a defining influence on how the spirit matures, distinct from the warmer, lower-altitude conditions most Japanese distilleries operate in.
Its pot stills carry that history forward physically rather than just in name. Designed by Kiichiro Iwai using Masataka Taketsuru’s own production notes, they closely resemble the straight-head stills used at Nikka’s Yoichi distillery, meaning Mars Shinshu’s still shape traces back to the same technical lineage as one of Japan’s oldest and most established whisky producers, despite Mars Shinshu’s own broken production history.
The original stills Iwai designed were first installed at an earlier Hombo distillery in Yamanashi Prefecture before being relocated to Nagano when the Shinshu site opened in 1985. They have since been replaced with exact replicas rather than kept in continuous service, which means the equipment working today reproduces Iwai’s original engineering rather than being the literal decades-old metal, a distinction worth noting for readers who assume every detail of a distillery’s founding-era hardware survives unchanged.
Core bottles and what they taste like
Mars Shinshu’s range splits into blended and single malt lines. Iwai, sold with a blue label, is the entry-level blend, with a nose of cinnamon and brûléed sugar leading into a palate of Red Delicious apple skin and English breakfast tea. Iwai Tradition sits above it, opening with clove and wildflower honey alongside a hint of earthy peat, moving into nougat and milk chocolate on the palate, with cinnamon rejoining on the finish. Komagatake is the distillery’s single malt line, released in dated annual editions rather than as one fixed, unchanging bottling.
At the World Whiskies Awards 2025, Mars Komagatake Japanese Barley 8 Years Old won a Bronze award, a specific, dated result rather than a general claim about the brand. Separately, at the 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition, the Komagatake 2021 Edition was among the whiskies in contention for Best of Class Japanese Whisky, in the same field as Kanosuke’s 2021 First Edition Single Malt.
| Expression | Type | Notable result | Flavor profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iwai (Blue Label) | Blended whisky | Entry-level core release | Cinnamon and brûléed sugar on the nose; Red Delicious apple skin and English breakfast tea on the palate |
| Iwai Tradition | Blended whisky | Step-up core release | Clove, wildflower honey, and a hint of earthy peat; nougat and milk chocolate with cinnamon on the finish |
| Komagatake (annual editions) | Single malt | Japanese Barley 8 Years Old won Bronze, World Whiskies Awards 2025 | Varies by edition; profile not fixed across releases |
Can readers outside Japan buy it or visit?
Mars Shinshu is more accessible abroad than many small Japanese distilleries, largely because Hombo Shuzo has worked with established importers for years rather than relying solely on direct export. In the United States, Skurnik Wines & Spirits and Tokiwa Imports both carry parts of the range, including several Iwai Tradition cask-finish variants, which puts entry-level and mid-tier Mars Shinshu bottlings within reach of readers outside Japan more reliably than is the case for some of the newer, smaller distilleries covered elsewhere on this site. Limited-edition Komagatake releases are harder to find and tend to sell through allocations rather than open retail, so readers chasing a specific annual edition should expect more competition for stock than with the Iwai line.
Visiting requires planning around geography and season. The distillery sits in a mountain location in Nagano Prefecture, at the foot of Kiso Komagatake, and its visitor building sells distillery-exclusive whisky, Mars wine, Minami-Shinshu beer, and original goods alongside displays of past releases and awards. Because the site is high-altitude and mountainous, tours and visiting hours are seasonal rather than year-round, so readers should confirm current opening dates and hours directly with the distillery before building a trip around a visit, particularly outside the warmer months.
FAQ
Q: Why did Mars Shinshu stop making whisky for almost 20 years?
A: Production halted in 1992 as demand for Japanese whisky fell sharply through the 1990s and into the 2000s, a downturn that affected the wider industry and led several producers to pause or scale back distilling. Hombo Shuzo resumed whisky production at Mars Shinshu in 2011, as renewed international and domestic interest in Japanese whisky made restarting commercially viable again. That gap means older Mars Shinshu stock and post-2011 releases come from genuinely separate production eras rather than one continuous run.
Q: What is the connection between Mars Shinshu and Nikka’s Yoichi distillery?
A: Mars Shinshu’s pot stills were designed by Kiichiro Iwai, an engineer who based his still designs on production records left by Masataka Taketsuru, the same person who later founded Nikka and built the Yoichi distillery. As a result, Mars Shinshu’s stills closely resemble the straight-head design used at Yoichi, even though the two distilleries have always been run by separate, unrelated companies with no ownership connection to one another.
Q: Is Mars Shinshu whisky easy to find in the US or UK?
A: The entry-level Iwai and Iwai Tradition blends are reasonably accessible through established importers such as Skurnik Wines & Spirits and Tokiwa Imports in the United States, which makes them easier to find than output from some of Japan’s smaller, newer distilleries. The single malt Komagatake line, released in limited annual editions, is considerably harder to source and tends to move through allocation rather than staying on general retail shelves for long.
Q: What makes Mars Shinshu’s location unusual for a whisky distillery?
A: At roughly 798 meters above sea level at the foot of Kiso Komagatake in Nagano’s Central Alps, it is the highest whisky distillery in Japan. The site gives the distillery soft water filtered through granite and consistently cool mountain air, conditions Hombo Shuzo says shape how the spirit matures, in contrast with the lower-altitude, warmer environments most Japanese distilleries operate in. The altitude also means visiting hours run on a seasonal schedule rather than year-round.
Sources
- HOMBO Official, “Mars Komagatake Distillery: Visiting Experience” — hombo.co.jp
- HOMBO Official, “Komagatake” — hombo.co.jp
- Quill & Pad, “Mars Shinshu Japanese Whiskies: High-Altitude Fire And Ice” — quillandpad.com
- Wikipedia, “Shinshu Mars distillery” — en.wikipedia.org
- World Whiskies Awards, “Bronze – Mars / Komagatake Japanese Barley 8 Years Old – World Whiskies Awards 2025” — worldwhiskiesawards.com
- Forbes, “The World’s Best Whiskies: 2022 San Francisco World Spirits Competition” — forbes.com
- Skurnik Wines & Spirits, “Iwai Tradition – Sherry Cask, Mars Whisky” — skurnik.com
- Tokiwa Imports, “Mars Shinshu” — tokiwaimports.com
Leave a Reply