This is a Japanese whisky distillery that only started distilling in 2016, Shizuoka Distillery, but has earned the reputation of "Springbank" of Japanese whisky because of its many innovations and explorations in distillation:
- Use of Oregon pine wood fermentation tank and Shizuoka cedar wood fermentation tank (the world's first distillery using Shizuoka cedar wood fermentation tank);
- direct wood distillation (the only malt whisky distillery in the world that uses wood direct fire distillation);
- production using 100% local barley and local yeast;
……
Beautiful Shizuoka distillery
The story of the Shizuoka Distillery begins with Taiko Nakamura, the founder of the distillery.
Yasuko Nakamura
Yasuko Nakamura began her career as a family-run precision parts manufacturing company and a clean energy producer. A chance encounter with Ichiro Akuto, the founder of Chichibu Distillery, and a visit to Kilchoman, the island's smallest family-owned artisanal distillery, on a 2012 trip to the island of Ere, Scotland, sparked the idea of creating a whisky distillery.
Qihoumen Distillery
Subsequently, the Nakamura family business began to venture into the liquor sector, importing whiskies, including Blackadder, Asta Morris (belgian independent bottler), Sweden's Mackmyra and so on. During this time, he also sourced equipment for the distillery.
Over the next four years, he visited more than 170 wineries (including whisky distilleries, breweries and wineries) to learn about the process and experience of making whisky.
- Assembling distilleries
Yasuko Nakamura wanted to build the distillery in her hometown of Shizuoka. Due to Shizuoka's mountainous location, it took Nakamura Taiko a long time to find a feng shui treasure land, and coincidentally, the city official in charge of deciding on the land use was also a whisky fan and wanted To build a distillery in Shizuoka. So Shizuoka Distillery found a home.
Shizuoka City
The design of the winery is both simple and modern, and its architecture is meticulously crafted to allow visitors to visit both the distillery and the stunning views of the Shizuoka Mountains, as well as the green tea farms that surround it and the beautiful forest mountains and their flora and fauna.
Wood-framed Shizuoka distillery
In May 2014, the distillery ordered two stills from Forsyths in Scotland, and in 2015 spent more than 5 million yen on old distillation equipment for Karuizawa, including four distillers (dating back to 1975, three of which are unusable and placed in the distillery for viewing), a Porteus malt mill (dating back to 1939), and other equipment such as a stone gothator and a hoop press.
Porteus mill
The working still that was auctioned off from Karuizawa is called Still K, and it has become a key part of the Shizuoka Distillery.
Stills K
——Integrate the local characteristics of Shizuoka
Location of the Shizuoka Distillery
In October 2016, after obtaining a whisky production license, Shizuoka Distillery began distilling whisky. Shizuoka began importing malt from Britain, France, Germany, Canada and Australia. In 2018, Shizuoka hired local farmers to grow barley for it, and in 2019 the distillery began experimental production using 100% local barley and local yeast. The distillery also produces peat malt whisky for a period of time each spring, with a peat value of about 40 ppm.
Located on the banks of the Abe River, Shizuoka Distillery provides the distillery's whiskies with moderately soft water, somewhere between chichibu's slightly harder and Yamazaki's slightly softer.
Shizuoka Distillery with Abegawa
The Shizuoka Distillery has four 8,000-liter oregon pine wood fermentation tanks, and later added four wooden fermentation tanks made of Shizuoka cedar of the same size (two more will be prepared). This is the first distillation in the world to use a Shizuoka cedar wood fermentation tank with a fermentation time of 3-5 days.
Shizuoka cedar wood fermentation tank
The Shizuoka Distillery has a total of 3 stills. In addition to the distiller that returned from the Karuizawa auction using steam plus static heat, the other two stills used wood for direct fire distillation. It is the only malt whisky distillery other than George Washington Distillery in Virginia that uses wood direct fire distillation.
Wood is distilled over direct fire
Shizuoka City has a mild and seasonal climate, ranging from mild, sunny winters to hot, humid and rainy summers, at an altitude of 200 meters above sea level and low terrain. Although it is windy, snow is rarely seen. The winery is surrounded by mountains, and the temperature of the winery is 2-3 degrees Celsius lower than that of the city, and the temperature of the city is about 20 degrees Celsius.
This is the Shizuoka Distillery, a distillery that has taken root and blended into the local area.
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Several whiskies from Shizuoka Distillery have been exciting so far, with the overtureS K (Prologue K) and Prologue W (Prologue W), as well as the fusion S (Contact S), a mixture of the first two, which have been widely acclaimed.
(1) Prologue K
Released in 2020, the distillery's first edition of single malt whisky, K stands for Karuizawa, with 50% Japanese malt and 50% British light peat malt as raw materials, distilled with a former Karuizawa still, matured for 3 years by the first fill of Bourbon barrels, with an alcohol content of 55.5% ABV and a limited edition of 5,000 bottles. Whiskybase score: 86.51.
The wine has a rich oil texture, minerality, lemon, peach, black pepper, and a slight spicy taste of mustard (Shizuoka is the birthplace of mustard), and the aftertaste is refreshing. This 3-year-old whisky is known as a whisky of the same quality as Scotland's Springbank.
(2) Prologue W
Released in June 2021 as the distillery's second edition of malt whisky, W stands for wood, based on Japanese malt, Scottish peat and non-peat malt and German beer malt as raw materials, distilled by a wood-fueled direct-fire still (unique in the world), matured by the first filled Bourbon barrel, the first filled bourbon quarter barrel and the American oak virgin barrel, aged 3 years, alcohol content 55.5% ABV, limited to 5000 bottles. Whiskybase score: 88.14.
The wines are characterized by softer aromas, rounded bodies, faint smoky notes and a long, soft aftertaste.
（3）静冈S（Contact S）
Released in 2021, it is the winery's third single malt whisky, blended from Shizuoka K + Shizuoka W, with an alcohol content of 55.5% ABV and a limited edition of 5000 bottles. Whiskybase score: 90.50.
The wines are floral, sweet, vanilla and malt, with bourbon barrels of malt, grain sweetness and fullness on the taste buds, with a slight peat aftertaste.
- All in all
There is so much Shizuoka whisky that can offer people, the body is full, smooth, the texture is excellent, the taste is complex, multi-dimensional, and there is a lot of potential.
At present, K+W+S is already very rare, and the market demand is very large. In addition, prior to the release of the first 3-year-old single malt whisky, the distillery also issued several sets of 200 ml of new wines, including (1) new non-peat distilled by still K, with an alcohol content of 63.5% ABV; (2) non-peat new liquor distilled by distiller W, with an alcohol content of 63.3% ABV; (3)
Unfortunately, frankly, the opening notes K and W are very difficult to obtain because the demand for them has always been enormous.
A set of new sake from Shizuoka Distillery. (Image source: Whisky auctioneer)
However, all hope was not lost; before the first release, Shizuoka Distillery released several new products in 200ml bottles. The set contains (1) new peat liquor that has not been treated with a Karuizawa still at 63.5% ABV, (2) a new wine without a wood-fired still with an ABV of 63.3%, and (3) a peat new liquor that has been refilled in Manzanilla sherry barrels for 25 months and has an alcohol content of 61.4% ABV.
In addition, Shizuoka has also launched several private buckets or owner barrels. This is also another way to get whisky from The Shizuoka Distillery.
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask / Maltoyama
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #033 / Chagata
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #23 / The Whisky Plus
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #26 / Hasegawasaketen
Shizuoka 2017 Single ex-Bourbon Cask #037阿波屋酒店
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #147 / Bar Ikkei
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #051 / Liquor Mountain
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #124 / Moruto0602 & Aila0531
Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #49 / Shinanoya
This is a private bucket series launched so far. In addition, the distillery has introduced the first blended whisky:
Shizuoka Blended M Gaiaflow
Dasu: WSET (International Wine and Spirits Education Foundation) Advanced Accreditation, SMWA (Scottish Single Malt Institute) Advanced Accreditation, dedicated to the education and promotion of wine and spirits. Welcome to follow.