Hanyu

As the result of successfully passing on a generations long family craftsmanship, the legendary closed Hanyu Distillery has produced some of the most scarce and most sought-after Japanese whiskies, such as the highly rare Hanyu Joker Monochrome and the Hanyu 2000 Final Vintage. The Hanyu Distillery was founded by Isouji Akuro in 1940, the nineteenth generation of the Akuro family. The Akuro family had already established a long-term family history in producing alcohol, as the family owned a sake company ever since the 17th century.

It was not until 1980 when the Akuro family decided to extend their product offer by manufacturing their own single malt whisky. Two Pot Stills were installed and the first Hanyu whisky was produced. At that time, the global demand for Japanese whisky unfortunately wasn’t very proportional and the majority of Hanyu was sold to provide for the production of whisky blends. Luckily enough, the global demand for Japanese single malt increased and pretty soon Hanyu started to produce Hanyu Single Malt Whisky as well!
Despite for the positive opportunities, the years thereafter didn’t turn out to become very prosperous for the Hanyu Distillery. The distillery’s ownership changed several times and eventually the Hanyu Distillery’s stock was put up for sale. The Hanyu Distillery was purchased by the Sasanokawa Shuzo Distillery, the owners of which had the production continued shortly thereafter. But sadly the Hanyu Distillery was shut down forever in 2004, leaving nothing but it’s legacy behind.

The grandson of Isouji Akuto, Ichiro Akuto, established the Chichibu Distillery in 1990 and acquired the remaining stock from the late Hanyu Distillery. The following years Akuto developed the Chichibu Distillery into becoming the most successful independent Japanese distiller today, continuing the Akuto family legacy. Ichiro Akuto even released the Hanyu Double Distilleries Ichiro’s Malt -which contains both Hanyu as Chichibu Single Malt Whisky- honoring his grandfather Isouji Akuto.