The grain-to-glass whiskey concept has been around for a while in the U.S., with craft distilleries like Frey Ranch leading the way and even legacy distilleries like Heaven Hill releasing their own expressions. But in Japan, that hasn’t been the case—until now. A new distillery called Kiyokawa is producing whisky quite literally from the field to the bottle.
Kiyokawa was founded in 2019, part of a growing number of new distilleries in Japan. For many years, there were basically two main companies that shared the whisky market there: Suntory and Nikka. But that has changed as new brands and distilleries have popped up around the country, and many are intent on adhering to the new standards (still voluntary at this point) that define Japanese whisky as being actually produced in the country, as opposed to the world blends that have historically made up a good share of the market.
Kiyokawa is following this path, and is set to release its very first Japanese single malt whisky next year. The distillery is located in the Japanese Alps of the Nagano prefecture, which Suntory’s Hakushu distillery also calls home. There, the Iiyama Mountain Farm Distillery grows its own barley, a fairly uncommon practice in this country where most of the barley for making whisky is imported from Scotland or other nations. The distillery enlisted the help of a scientist to create a crossbreed of barley that could stand up to extreme fluctuations in weather in the mountains, which ranges from hot summers to snowy winters. According to a rep for the distillery, the barley fields there can be buried in as much as three meters of snow in the dead of winter.
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That barley is then used to create a 100 percent malted barley mashbill which is distilled in a pair of copper pot stills imported from Italy. The new make spirit is then matured in two different types of barrels—marsala casks also imported from Italy, and Oloroso sherry casks from Spain. The team is also experimenting with bourbon barrels that were seasoned with orange liqueur to see what the effect on the whisky might be. Lastly, the Kiyokawa team is planning to build a facility to produce Japanese washi paper, traditionally made from mulberry plant fiber, to use for the labels for the bottles.
We have not been able to sample the whisky, but the distillery provided some tasting notes. The marsala cask whisky is bottled at 62 percent ABV, and has notes of peach and apricot on the palate, followed by a malty, floral finish with some candied ginger. The sherry cask is also bottled at cask strength, with notes of raisins, black cherries, and chocolate sweetness on the palate. If you’d like to try for yourself, you can purchase an entire cask through Japanese spirits website Dekanta, which is Kiyokawa’s exclusive global partner. And if you do invest in one, you will have the chance to sample the whisky for yourself, visit the distillery, and ultimately bottle your own whisky from the barrel once it has reached the minimum age requirement—the perfect opportunity for anyone looking to create their own vanity whisky label.
