Tanzawa (丹沢) Distillery, in the mountains of Yamakita (山北) in Kanagawa (神奈川) prefecture, has begun distilling its own malt spirit, the first time it has done so since the site opened in 2024. Until now it has only bottled blended whisky built from imported Scottish malt and grain spirit. The switch to in-house distillation, reported by the Kanagawa Shimbun on August 31, 2026 and by the Japanese whisky site BARREL the next day, is the step that could eventually let the distillery describe its whisky as Japanese. The distillery’s own news log dates the first run of house spirit to January 21, 2026. A first release of house-distilled whisky is planned for around 2029.
Update, October 29, 2026: we have corrected this report against the distillery’s official site. The original version said Tanzawa sold two bottlings; a third, a Spanish oak finish, went on sale on August 1, 2026. We have also added the January 2026 start date for distillation and removed a statement about visitor access that we could not confirm.
The distillery is run by Zeroichi Whisky (株式会社ゼロイチウイスキー), a company based in Ota ward, Tokyo. It was split off on March 5, 2026 from DELI Motto (DELIもっと), a prepared-foods business. Its president, Mamoru Hashiguchi (橋口守), 45, began scouting for a site in 2018, found the Yamakita plot the following year, and opened the distillery in July 2024 near Hoki-sugi (箒杉), a cedar said to be 2,000 years old, upstream of Lake Tanzawa. Water is drawn from 34 meters underground. “I looked at all sorts of places searching for water, and the water here was extraordinarily clean,” Hashiguchi told the Kanagawa Shimbun. “I fell for it at first sight.” Maturing stock is held at a separate warehouse in Kurokura (玄倉), a short drive down the valley. Our Tanzawa distillery guide covers the site, the founders and the charcoal method in more depth.
The current bottles are blends of Scottish malt and grain whisky, finished in cask in Yamakita and filtered through charcoal using a method the distillery worked out itself. Hashiguchi says he tried filtering the spirit through stone, treating it with ultrasound and freezing it before settling on Kishu binchotan (紀州備長炭), a dense Japanese charcoal, to soften what he calls the harshness of the alcohol. The distillery calls the process Bincho Charcoal Filtering. There are three versions, all at 46% ABV and 700ml: a sherry-cask finish and a bourbon-cask finish, both released on April 1, 2025, and a Spanish oak finish released on August 1, 2026. BARREL reported a shop price of 5,500 yen (about $37 / £28). Annual output is roughly 40,000 bottles. The house style is deliberately quiet: Hashiguchi wants a whisky to drink alongside food rather than after it. We have not tasted these whiskies.
The company’s earlier business points to why the change matters. Before building in Yamakita, it exported a contract-made private-label whisky called Shingen (信玄), produced in Yamanashi, at about 28,000 bottles a year, mostly to China. When the distillery opened, the local paper Town News reported that the site could make up to 100,000 bottles a year and that the plan was to start making whisky from barley “in about three years.” That plan has broadly held. Japanese whisky exports to China have fallen year on year recently, and China is building its own distilleries quickly. Tanzawa is one of dozens of small sites that have appeared on the Japanese whisky distilleries list in the past decade.
Why this matters
Tanzawa is a clear example of a quiet shift among small Japanese producers. A business that grew by bottling contract whisky for one export market has decided to own its production, its brand and its customers at home. BARREL framed the move the same way, as a turning point away from dependence on contract exports to China, and suggested other small producers may follow. A contract label can be replaced by a buyer at any time; a distillery with its own spirit, water and story is much harder to replace.
It also shows how long that shift takes. Construction started in February 2023. The first house spirit ran in January 2026. Under Japan’s three-year minimum, nothing from those stills can be sold as whisky before January 2029, and that is if the first casks are ready on the first possible day. In the meantime the company pays for the business with imported blends, sold largely at street festivals, beach events and local fairs around Kanagawa and Tokyo rather than through specialist shops. That is a food company’s way of building a brand. Whether the charcoal-polished, low-key style carries over to its own malt spirit is the real question for 2029. The distillery has not published its still type, mash bill, yeast or distilling volume, and we have not guessed at them.
For readers outside Japan
The most important thing for readers abroad is on the label. Under the industry standard that took effect in 2021, whisky blended from imported spirit and only bottled in Japan cannot be sold as Japanese whisky; such products are usually called world blended whisky or similar. All three current Tanzawa bottles sit in that category, and the company does not claim otherwise. Distilling malt spirit on site in Kanagawa is what would let a future bottling carry the Japanese whisky description, as long as it is also matured for at least three years and bottled in Japan.
Practically, there is little to buy yet. When the distillery opened, it said most of its output would go overseas. As of this update we could not find the current Tanzawa range listed by any retailer in the US, the UK or the EU. In Japan the bottles turn up at the events listed on the distillery’s calendar and through Yamakita’s hometown tax donation program, which is meant for taxpayers in Japan. If you are travelling, our guide to where to buy Japanese whisky in Tokyo lists specialist shops worth asking. Shipping bottles home is a separate problem; see importing Japanese whisky from Japan before you plan on it.
Visiting takes planning. The distillery gives its address as Nakagawa 822-1, Yamakita, about 50 minutes by car from the Oi-Matsuda interchange on the Tomei Expressway or about an hour by bus from Shin-Matsuda station to the Hokizawa (箒沢) stop. It publishes events on a calendar rather than a standing tour schedule, so contact it before you go. The bottles to watch are the house-distilled releases from 2029 onward. Meanwhile, our report on Takazo’s first single malt shows what a first release from a small Japanese site looks like.
Sources: Tanzawa Distillery, official site and news log (Japanese); BARREL, September 1, 2026 (Japanese); Town News Ashigara edition, July 6, 2024 (Japanese). Original report: Kanagawa Shimbun, August 31, 2026 (Japanese; the syndicated online version is no longer available).