When talking about iconic whisky, the name Karuizawa will always come up. And yes, for once it is not a Scottish whisky that belongs in the illustrious list of great whisky names.
In this blog, we tell the story behind Karuizawa's success: the beginning and the end ...
Karuizawa is a beautiful, small, idyllic mountain village nestled among the hills of the Japanese Highland area, lying on the fertile soil of the still active Asama volcano, not far from Tokyo in Nagano.
In 1886, a Scottish priest fell in love with this beautiful environment, built a church here and planted the first vines for a vineyard. Under the name Daikoku-ten, the wine company began experimenting with whisky production in 1922, but as Port and Champagne-style wines were more interesting, the whisky plan soon faded into the background.
After World War II, with the grandson at the helm, the old plans were revived and in 1946 the first whisky was released under the name ‘Ocean Whisky’. However, whether it was made from 100% malt is still a matter of speculation today, let alone whether it would be palatable by today's standards.
After a new renovation of the winery in 1955 with a much more serious approach. As import of barley was restricted until 1958, production came under pressure. Once the restrictions were lifted, Karuizawa started to import Golden Promise, the same type of barley used by The Macallan because of its high quality and unique flavour profile. This type of barley produced a rich and oily character. They continued to use this variety until the final closure of the distillery.
By 1959 Karuizawa whisky was matured in Spanish sherry casks. And although Golden Promise was less efficient in terms of yield compared to more modern grain varieties, it proved to be the foundation for the excellent quality. Combined with the import of sherry casks and the Japanese mountain climate, this resulted in complex, deep and rich whiskies.
And did you know that Karuizawa was mainly used to produce blended whiskies until the late 1970's? Unimaginable giving its current status. In the 1980's new owners decided to have production changed to more single malt production under the label Ocean Karuizawa.
At festivals, we are often asked what Japanese whisky actually tastes like. We always compare it to the Italian car industry and say that a Fiat Multipla is quite different from a Maserati. Just like Scottish whiskies, it is difficult to categorise a distillery's flavour profile into a single box, as the interplay of casks and the choice of peated or non-peated malt makes for so many differences, which is what makes discovering whisky so much fun, both in tasting and in production.
Here too, Karuizawa has applied a very broad palette to its portfolio. From heavy peated sherry samples from the 1970s and 1980s to more subtle 12-year-old Asama expressions matured in bourbon casks from the last years of production around the millennium.
The heavy sherry samples have given the distillery its characteristic reputation, often acquiring the characteristics of grandeur, leather, tobacco, sulphur, black tea, chocolate, eucalyptus and almost the syrupiness and colour of cough syrup.
There were two gentlemen who saw an opportunity to introduce the European market to this small, unique Japanese whisky distillery. David Caroll and Marcin Miller set up the company Number Drinks in 2006 and were among the first to ship Karuizawa to the West. However, the Dutch company Full Proof holds the European premiere with a series of beautiful Japanese Hanyu whiskies and a bottling of Karuizawa 1994-2006.
After lengthy negotiations with Kirin, Number One Drinks became the owner of the remaining 364 casks. Fortunately for the gentlemen, there was room for the casks in the newly built storage facility at Ichiro Akuto's Chichibu distillery.
As a stunt, the gentlemen released a Karuizawa 1960 in 2013, cask #5627, at Whisky Live Tokyo for 2 million yen (12,300 euros). At the time, this was the highest sale price for a bottle of whisky after the Yamazaki 50. With a yield of only 41 bottles, the cask provided the necessary promotion and perhaps caused a stir among enthusiasts. After all, who would pay this much for a bottle from the Karuizawa distillery, which was still almost unknown in Europe?
Another record was set two and a half years after its release at Bonhams, when the hammer fell on the same bottle at HKD 918,750, well over 100,000 euros.
Unfortunately, on 31 December 2000, the curtain fell on the distillery after many years of disappointing sales figures, as the popularity of whisky worldwide was at a low ebb. The company was sold for a song to the Kirin brewery in 2006, after which the land was later sold to a property developer.
In the winter of 2016, the distillery was finally closed down and all the buildings were demolished. The remaining still and equipment were sold at auction to Gaia Flow.
The restored stills are now used as part of the thriving Shizuoka Distillery, which was set up in the same year as the demolition of Karuizawa.
The now highly respected and acclaimed Ichiro Akuto of the Chichibu distillery did an internship in the last months of its existence in 2006 in preparation for setting up his own distillery under the guidance of master distiller Osami Uchibri. Part of the deal was that Ichiro also had to take over the distilled spirit. Ichiro filled a number of different casks with it, including Mizunara oak, a rare Japanese type of oak. This cask is still lying in Ichiro's warehouse and it is only a matter of time before we can experience the first matured Karuizawa in a Mizunara cask.
Karuizawa reopens, the headlines read in 2023!
But is that really the case? Different owner, different equipment, distilled on different soil. Of course, the name is named after the place and whisky will be made under the same name on the bottle. But is this a comeback for the much-loved historic distillery from the glory days of the 20th century? As an advisor, a student of former master distiller Osami Uchibari is closely involved in the new project, which will also mainly use sherry casks.
Time will tell how the spirit develops.
