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A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

author:Dasu's taste said

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;

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A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Beautiful Shizuoka distillery

The story of the Shizuoka Distillery begins with Taiko Nakamura, the founder of the distillery.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Stills K

——Integrate the local characteristics of Shizuoka

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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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A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style
A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style
A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style
A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style
A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

In addition, Shizuoka has also launched several private buckets or owner barrels. This is also another way to get whisky from The Shizuoka Distillery.

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask / Maltoyama

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #033 / Chagata

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #23 / The Whisky Plus

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #26 / Hasegawasaketen

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single ex-Bourbon Cask #037阿波屋酒店

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #147 / Bar Ikkei

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #051 / Liquor Mountain

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

Shizuoka 2017 Single Bourbon Cask #124 / Moruto0602 & Aila0531

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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:

A large analysis of Shizuoka, a Japanese whisky distillery with a strong Genting style

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.

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