Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on February 2011
Hakushu (Suntory)
There’s a cool breeze blowing in through the pines that stretch far up the granite slopes of Mt. Kaikomagatake in the south Japanese Alps. Dotted within the forest are warehouses and distillery buildings, though it is hard to comprehend the size of Suntory’s Hakushu distillery until you climb to the bridge that sits atop its museum. There you can gaze out over a site which is part national park, part distillery complex—and as clear a manifestation of the scale of Japanese distillers’ ambition in the 1970s. That’s when a booming economy and a seemingly insatiable thirst for (blended) whisky led to the building of this, what was for a period the world’s largest malt distillery. It is considerably cooler and less humid here in the Alps than at Yamazaki, and maturation takes longer. Maybe it also helps to retain that cool herbal freshness that typifies today’s Hakushu.
Free 60-minute tour and tasting for groups of two or more. English audio guide available. Reserve by phone at least one day in advance. 2913-1 Torihara, Hakushu-machi, Hokuto, Yamanashi. Tel: 0551-35-2211. Ten minutes by car from Kobuchizawa stn, JR Chuo Main line. www.suntory.co.jp/factory/hakushu
Yamazaki (SUNTORY)
It starts here, next to the old road that linked Kyoto with the port of Osaka, across the railway tracks where today bullet trains hurtle; a place of stifling summer humidity and winter chill. This is Yamazaki, Japan’s oldest whisky distillery. Suntory’s founder chose to build here in 1923 for a number of reasons. It made shrewd commercial sense to be situated between two important markets with good transport links, and it was the meeting place of three rivers, meaning a plentiful supply of water. There’s a deeper resonance, however. This was where Sen no Rikyu, the creator of what we now know as the tea ceremony, built his first teahouse because, some feel, of the water. This is more than just a convenient bit of flat land beside the railway tracks.
Free 60-minute tour and tasting for groups of two or more. English-language tours available. 5-2-1 Yamazaki, Shimamoto, Mishima-gun, Osaka. Tel: 075-962-1423. Nearest stn: Yamazaki, JR Kyoto line. www.suntory.co.jp/factory/yamazaki/yutai/
Miyagikyo (Nikka)
Miyagikyo is located 45 minutes west of Sendai, a place of twisting roads and gnarled maple-covered hills, one of those secret parts of Japan that the stranger rarely visits. Hot water gushes from the earth, and discreet old onsen are dotted around the mountain valleys. By the late 1960s, Masataka Taketsuru, the legendary co-founder of Japanese whisky who had created Nikka in the 1930s, wanted another distillery site. If his first search had led him directly to the cold north (see Yoichi), this time the whole of Japan was considered. Company legend has it that it took him three years to find this spot in the Miyagi Valley where the Nikkawa and Hirose rivers meet. At Yoichi, he created a heavy, smoky, richly-textured single malt. Here, lightness of touch was the key. If Yoichi is a winter whisky, all smoke and leather armchairs, Miyagikyo is filled with the fruits of late summer.
Free 60-minute tour and tasting. Japanese-language only. Nikka 1, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi. Tel: 022-395-2111. Nearest stn: Sakunami, JR Senzan line. www.nikka.com/reason/introduction/miyagikyo/index.html
Yoichi (Nikka)
Though spread out across central and northern Honshu, all of Japan’s malt distilleries are easily accessible from Tokyo. There’s good reason for that: ease of transport and access to the main markets. All of them, that is, bar one: Yoichi. Where is Yoichi? Your eyes finally head north to Hokkaido; you trace the line to the ferry crossing between Aomori and Hakodate, past Sapporo, then 50km west to the coast. This is the northlands, this is opposite Vladivostok. Taketsuru always had a vision of making whisky in Hokkaido. It was his perfect location. As he wrote: “A place would be needed which would constantly supply good quality water, where barley can be obtained, with a good supply of fuel, coal or wood, with a railway link and with water navigation.” All signs, he felt, pointed to Hokkaido.
Free 60-minute tour and tasting. Japanese-language only. 7-6 Kurokawa-cho, Yoichi-machi, Yoichi-gun, Hokkaido. Tel: 0135-23-3131. Nearest stn: Yoichi, Hakodate Main line. www.nikka.com/reason/introduction/yoichi/index.html
Dave Broom is editor-in-chief of Whisky Magazine Japan and consultant editor to Whisky Magazine. He is a two-time winner of the Glenfiddich Award for Drinks Book of the Year. This article features extracts from his latest book, The World Atlas of Whisky (Mitchell Beazley, 2010).
