From its Mizunara wash backs and small stills with steep lyne arms to the fact that the mashman uses a wooden paddle to stir the mash, Chichibu is a hands-on distillery with quality as an intrinsic focus. With the ground now broken on a blending room, and an off-site cooperage, Ichiro Akuto’s distillery – formed from the ashes of his grandfather’s Hanyu distillery – is one of the finest producers in Japan. With the perfect climate of humid summers and cold winters, Chichibu is an ideal location for whisky production and has become a huge part of the Japanese whisky revolution.
