Gaiaflow Shizuoka Distillery (ガイアフロー静岡蒸溜所), the Shizuoka Prefecture producer known for heating its stills with wood rather than steam, will release the 2026 edition of its Pot Still W series in late August 2026. The single malt is distilled entirely from barley grown in Japan and bottled at 50.5% ABV in 500ml bottles for 13,948 yen. The release follows an earlier vintage from the same series that won the distillery its second World Whiskies Awards gold medal this year.
Barley grown from scratch, one still at a time
When Shizuoka Distillery opened in 2015, it was the only whisky producer in Japan to state a goal of using 100% locally grown barley. Most malt whisky made anywhere in the world does not disclose where its barley was grown, and Japanese-grown barley is scarce and expensive compared to the imported grain most distilleries rely on. Shizuoka worked with local farmers, agricultural cooperatives and Shizuoka Prefecture to build a domestic barley supply from almost nothing, starting with securing seed stock. The distillery says the finished whisky tastes noticeably different from whisky made with imported barley, and that the difference has become more pronounced as the spirit has matured, which is why it now bottles whisky from Japanese and imported barley as separate releases.
The “W” in the name refers to the still used to make it: a wood-fired copper pot still, built by combining a Forsyths of Scotland copper body with a furnace made by a local pizza-oven craftsman. Where indirect steam heating tops out around 150°C, direct wood fire reaches roughly 800°C, which the distillery says produces a richer, more full-bodied spirit with a pronounced toasted character. Workers feed the fire with thinned conifer wood from Shizuoka’s forests roughly every 15 minutes during a run, a byproduct of local forest management. It is a distinct process from the distillery’s other pot still, “K”, a still moved from the shuttered Karuizawa (軽井沢) distillery in 2016 that is prized for a lighter, fruitier profile. Shizuoka bottles single-still expressions from each under its limited “Pot Still” series, and this release, “Pot Still W”, is the 2026 vintage of the Japanese-barley version specifically.
The distillery entered the World Whiskies Awards for the first time in 2024 and won gold along with a category win in the no-age-statement, small-batch single malt category, before taking the overall Japan prize for small-batch single malt in the competition’s second stage. A Pot Still K expression won gold in 2025, and this year a barrel-aged, five-year Pot Still W took gold again, giving the Japanese-barley series its second win in three years of entries.
Why it matters beyond Japan
Shizuoka’s wood-fired stills are unusual enough globally that they have become a talking point among whisky enthusiasts well outside Japan, and the distillery’s repeat award wins add an independent signal of quality to that reputation. Because each Pot Still release is bottled in limited numbers and sold mainly through Japanese retailers, most bottles will likely stay difficult to find outside Japan for now, which is part of what has made them collectible among overseas fans who track the brand’s limited releases. The distillery’s growing WWA record also fits a broader pattern this year of small Japanese producers picking up international recognition alongside the country’s best-known names.
Source: Japanese Whisky Dictionary (jpwhisky.net) (Japanese)