DISTILLERY PROFILE
A tale of two Japanese distilleries
The Society is delighted to introduce whisky from a Japanese whisky maker whose roots go back to the 19th century, and which was instrumental in the country’s development of a Scottish style of single malt
WORDS: RICHARD GOSLAN
The Mars Komagatake and Mars Tsunuki distilleries may be relatively new kids on the block in the world of Japanese whisky, having been established in 1985 and 2016 respectively. But their heritage goes back to a shochu distilled spirit started in 1909 by Hombo Shuzo, which was founded in 1872 on the southern island of Kyushu.
The shochu company obtained a license to distil whisky in 1949 and turned to Kiichiro Iwai to help design a distillery in Yamanashi, near Tokyo. Iwai himself is considered one of the founding fathers of Japanese whisky, having been a mentor of Masataka Taketsuru when the two men worked together at the Settsu Shuzo liquor company. Settsu Shuzo wanted to start creating a truly Scottish style whisky, and Iwai, with support from company president Kihei Abe, was instrumental in sending Taketsuru on his mission to Scotland to study organic chemistry at the University of Glasgow, and subsequently to soak up as much whisky knowledge as possible during his spells at Longmorn in Speyside, Bo’ness grain distillery and then Hazelburn in Campbeltown.
Unfortunately, when Taketsuru returned to Japan in 1920 – bringing with him his new Scottish wife Rita Cowan along with his new-found whisky knowledge – Settsu Shuzo had decided not to pursue its goal of producing Scotch-style whisky, citing the impact of the post-war economic depression. Undeterred, Taketsuru took his Scottish whisky knowledge instead to Kotobukiya – later Suntory – to lead the project to build Japan’s first whisky distillery, Yamazaki, near Kyoto. Taketsuru of course went on to found his own distillery at Yoichi on Hokkaido, giving birth to Nikka whisky in 1940.
Kiichiro Iwai, meanwhile, left Settsu Shuzo and went to work with Hombo Shuzo, where he was instrumental in setting up their Yamanashi winery and distillery in 1960 – using Taketsuru’s Scottish whisky-making notebooks as inspiration.
Distillery operations were suspended in 1972 and whisky-making was still a side-business for Mars Hombo until 1985, when the company decided to build a new facility in the Nagano region at the foot of Japan’s Central Alps.
A bird’s-eye view of the Mars Komagatake distillery at the foot of Japan’s Central Alps
Komagatake distillery’s pot stills are exact replicas of the stills from Yamanashi distillery
MARS KOMAGATAKE
The location for Hombo Shuzo’s new distillery, previously known as Mars Shinshu and now Mars Komagatake, was considered key to producing whisky that benefitted from the mountainous climate. As one of Japan’s high-altitude distilleries, at 798 metres above sea level, it uses soft water filtered through granite soil and snow melt from the Alps, in an environment of clean cool air and mountain fog. Kiichiro Iwai’s legacy also played a role, with his original pot stills from the old Yamanashi distillery relocated to the new site, where they have subsequently been replaced with exact replicas.
Under the direction of distiller Kunihiro Kawakami, the Mars Komagatake distillery produces 180,000 litres of pure alcohol (LPA) a year, and uses a mix of stainless steel and wooden washbacks for its lengthy fermentations, seeking to create a light, fruitier style of whisky. Maturation is mostly in ex-bourbon wood, but also in the company’s own wine barrels from its Yamanashi winery and beer barrels from its Komagatake brewery on the same site. The facility has recently been completely renovated, with a new distilling plant, maturation cellar and a visitor’s centre.
ESTABLISHED
1985
LOCATION
Miyada, Nagano
OWNER
Hombo Shuzo Co., Ltd.
WASH STILL
6,000L
SPIRIT STILL
8,200L
WAREHOUSING
Racked
CAPACITY
180,000LPA
FERMENTATION
72-96hrs
Six – three wooden, three stainless steel
Mars Tsunuki distillery opened in Kagoshima on the island of Kyushu in 2016
MARS TSUNUKI
If the company’s first distillery near the Japanese Alps was designed to produce a light style of whisky, the decision to build a second distillery on the southern island of Kyushu was dictated by the vision for what the company calls a ‘deep and energetic’ whisky.
In 2016 Mars Tsunuki opened in Kagoshima in Hombo Shuzo’s homebase. The climate here is in marked contrast to the Komagatake distillery. At the southern point of Kyushu, Mars Tsunuki is in a warm and humid environment where the temperatures lead to a much more rapid form of maturation. The distillery was also designed with worm tub condensers to produce a heavier base distillate, and distillery manager Tatsuro Kusano has been experimenting with fermentation times, speciality malts such as chocolate and caramel, as well as local barley strains.
Maturation is also a focus, taking place at three separate locations with very different environments: the warmth of Kagoshima, the cold of Komagatake and also subtropical in a cellar on Yakushima island off the coast of Kyushu, a UNESCO World Heritage site with a unique island ecosystem.
As for what Society members can expect from the Mars Komagatake and Mars Tsunuki distilleries, the company says: “With two distilleries and three maturation sites we are able to produce a wide variety of whiskies. We hope that Society members will enjoy the rich natural environment of the distilleries and ageing sites, and feel the individuality of each.”
Look out for whisky coming your way from both of these distinctive Japanese distilleries in the near future.
The creation of Tsunuki distillery was dictated by the vision for a ‘deep and energetic’ whisky