NIKKA YOICHI DISTILLERY (余市蒸溜所), Yoichi (余市), Hokkaido (北海道), Japan, 2019.06.23

Day 9 (1/2).

In recent years, the demand for Japanese whisky has skyrocketed worldwide, as many believe they have become the best in the world. The hype originated from 2001, when Whisky Magazine honored Nikka’s 10-Year Yoichi as its “Best of the Best. Global interest continues to grow as Japanese whisky continued to pick up international awards, including the world’s best whisky award given to Suntory’s Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2013 by Whisky Bible in 2015. The story of Nikka whisky began in 1934 when Masataka Taketsuru (竹鶴政孝) established his distillery in Yoichi, a location in Hokkaido that Taketsuru believed would best resemble the conditions of Scotland, the home of the famous scotch whisky. For the locals, Nikka Distillery in Yoichi is better known for the story of Masataka Taketsuru and his Scottish wife Rita, which has been retold in 2014 by a popular TV drama Massan made by the national broadcasting company NHK.

Born in 1894 in Takehara Hiroshima to a sake brewing family, Taketsuru traveled to Scotland in December 1918 and enrolled in University of Glasgow to study organic chemistry, and also took apprenticeship at various distillery facilities. In January 1920, he married Jessie Roberta Cowan (Rita) despite opposition from both families. In November 1920, they moved back to Japan and was hired by Kotobukiya (now Suntory) to set up Japan’s first malt whisky distillery known as Yamazaki Distillery (山崎蒸溜所) in Shimamoto, Osaka. Suntory refused to move the facility to Hokkaido, where Taketsuru believed was more similar to Scotland. As a result, Taketsuru left Suntory and established his own distillery in Yoichi with Rita in 1934. Nowhere is better than Nikka Yoichi Distillery to learn more about the story of Taketsuru and Rita, where their house and office were preserved and put on display at the distillery museum. The self guided tour of the facility allowed us to check out the buildings for various processes of whisky distillery, houses and offices of Taketsuru and Rita, a museum housing historical artefacts of the facility, and a tasting house and souvenir shop.

It was just a short walk from Yoichi JR Station to the distillery. The facility main gate was already full of visitors when we arrived at 9:15am.

A sign of “Nikka Whisky” was erected for photo backdrop for visitors.

The facility is consisted of a number of historical buildings.

Coal fire is still used to heat up the old copper stills at the distillery.

Staff keeps on adding coal into the furnace.

Yoichi Distillery is claimed to be the last remaining facility still using coal fire for their whisky stills.

Old buildings at the facility have been converted into exhibition areas to tell the story of whisky making.

Display of oak for making of traditional wood barrels.

A few wood barrels are put on display for visitors to take photos.

The former residence and office of Taketsuru and Rita were well preserved.

Former residence of the Taketsuru couple.

Barrel warehouse

Entrance into the museum building.

One of the two tasting areas in the museum.

The story of Masataka and Rita Taketsuru was told in the museum with artefacts and photos.

At the end, we had a chance for a free tasting with three glasses of alcohol: single malt Yoichi, Super Nikka, and Apple Wine. We could choose to add ice, water or apple juice to the alcohol.