Kobe Distillery (神戸蒸溜所), a small producer in the hills of Kobe’s Kita (北) ward in Hyogo Prefecture, will release its first single malt whisky in November 2026. Two bottlings carry the Kobe name: KOBE WHISKY SINGLE MALT 1st edition, at 47% ABV, and KOBE WHISKY SINGLE BOURBON CASK 1st edition, a single cask bottled at 59% ABV. The distillery’s online shop lists both as preorders that ship from November 16, 2026, according to its product pages and a report by the Japanese whisky site JP Whisky Dictionary (ジャパニーズウイスキーディクショナリー). The release matters because it is the first whisky from a site that restarted pot stills left idle for decades, and it adds a second distillery to a city that most whisky drinkers do not yet associate with malt.
The 47% single malt comes in 700ml bottles, limited to 2,000 bottles, at ¥14,300 including tax. The distillery says it used two-row malted barley chosen for its large grains and high starch content, and fermented the wash with two strains, a whisky yeast and an ale yeast, to build aroma, complexity and body. Fermentation runs for about 70 hours, which is long by industrial standards and is usually chosen to develop fruity notes. The spirit was distilled in copper pot stills and matured mainly in ex-bourbon casks, with spirit from sherry casks and Japanese cherry (sakura) wood casks blended in. The distillery’s own tasting notes describe vanilla, ripe fruit and a green, slightly bitter note it compares to sakura mochi, the cherry-leaf-wrapped rice sweet.
The single cask edition is drawn from one ex-bourbon barrel, Cask No. 11, aged for three years in Kobe and bottled at cask strength. It is limited to 200 bottles of 700ml at ¥19,800. The distillery picked the cask for its aroma and describes notes of vanilla, honey and banana. The distillery does not state an age for the 47% edition. It began operating on October 14, 2022, so no spirit in either bottle can be much more than four years old.
The site itself is unusual. Kobe Distillery sits inside the Kobe Fruit Flower Park Ozo (神戸フルーツ・フラワーパーク大沢), a roadside station complex with a hotel, hot spring and amusement park. According to the distillery’s published material, it holds licenses for whisky and brandy and runs two sets of stills: a pair of new whisky pot stills of 4,000 and 2,000 liters, and a pair of French Charentais alembic stills of 5,000 and 2,500 liters, the direct-fired type used for cognac. JP Whisky Dictionary reports that the alembics fell out of use after the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake (阪神・淡路大震災), and the product pages describe the whisky as coming from “a distillery restarted after 30 years.” The operator is Growstars (グロースターズ), a Kobe trading company founded in 2015 that exports Japanese food and drink.
For international readers, the key fact is that this is a Japan-only release for now. The official shop ships only within Japan, caps orders at five bottles per item, and lists no overseas importer. Growstars is an exporter by trade, so overseas distribution later would not be surprising, but the company has announced nothing. Kobe is not the first distillery in the city: Rokkosan makes whisky on the mountain above Kobe, and the long-established Eigashima’s White Oak distillery, sits along the coast in Akashi. Kobe Distillery adds a third whisky producer to the prefecture with a different profile from both.
Why this matters
The first single malt is the most important release a new Japanese distillery makes. It is the first product that can be judged on whisky made entirely on site, and the three-year minimum set by the industry’s Japanese whisky standard means most craft distilleries founded in the early 2020s are only now reaching that point. Kobe joins a wave of recent debuts that includes Komoro in Nagano and Takazo. Each of these launches tests whether a distillery’s early choices about barley, yeast and casks produce a recognizable style.
Kobe’s choices point toward a fruit-forward, textured spirit. Ale yeast alongside whisky yeast and a fermentation of around 70 hours are both techniques craft producers use to push esters and body, rather than the clean, fast profile of large-scale distilling. The use of sakura wood is a more local signal. Japanese cherry is one of several native woods, alongside mizunara oak, that Japanese distilleries now use to set their whisky apart from Scotch; our guide to Japanese whisky cask types explains how these casks differ. The distillery says it also plans to mature spirit in mizunara.
The setting also explains the strategy. The distillery has said since it opened that its goal is to create a new specialty product for Kobe and to make the city better known in Japan and abroad. Placing production inside a busy leisure complex makes it a visitor attraction from day one, and putting the city name on the first bottle is a bet on Kobe’s international recognition, which already rests on beef, sake from the nearby Nada (灘) district and its port history.
For readers outside Japan
You cannot order either bottle from abroad through the official channel. The shop’s delivery options are domestic only, and Japanese retailers generally cannot ship spirits overseas; some countries, including the US, also restrict personal imports. If you want a bottle, the realistic routes are buying in Japan or waiting for an importer. Our guide to importing whisky from Japan sets out which options work. With 2,000 bottles of the standard edition and only 200 of the single cask, expect the cask strength bottling to sell quickly.
If you are traveling to Japan, the distillery sits inside a public leisure park in the hills north of central Kobe, which makes it easier to visit than many rural craft distilleries. Check opening hours and any tasting or shop arrangements before you go. You can combine it with a trip up Mount Rokko to Rokkosan, or with Akashi on the coast. For bottles that are already easy to find abroad, look at our list of Japanese whisky distilleries and our picks of Japanese whisky under $100.
We will report in the news section if Kobe Distillery announces an export partner or a second edition.
Source: JP Whisky Dictionary (Japanese); Kobe Distillery official shop (Japanese)