Deep in the mountains of Yamanashi, a prefecture relatively close to Tokyo, sits the Hakushu Distillery. It takes about four hours by train, and after years of telling myself I should go someday, I finally made the trip. The one pity was that the autumn leaves had already all fallen. It would have been nice to go a few weeks earlier.

On the train there.

It was, honestly, a long way. The scenery was great though. Seeking out places with clean air every now and then is a good thing, but when you consider sitting for four hours to get there, I am not so sure it is good for your health.

You arrive at Kobuchizawa Station, take the shuttle bus about ten minutes up into the mountains, and there is the distillery.

The entrance

Being up in the mountains the air is a little chilly, but walking along a road cut right through the forest feels wonderful.

The building with the gift shop and the bar

The number one reason I came all this way is inside here.

The whisky museum

The whisky tour starts in front of this building.

The bar

A bar where you can do paid tastings of Suntory whiskies.

I went for the Yamazaki 25 Year Old and the Hakushu Sherry Barrel.

A glass of Yamazaki 25 was 2,300 yen. Being able to taste a whisky that costs around 100,000 yen a bottle this cheaply makes the trip out here worth it. The Yamazaki 25 I actually tasted had a luxurious flavour with a long, elegant finish, but that strong, punchy impact that is so typical of Yamazaki had already mellowed into something rounder. The aftertaste lingered in my mouth for minutes, so I could tell it was a truly high-end whisky, yet something felt a little lacking. In that sense, it made me appreciate how remarkable the Rosebank 25, with its perfect balance, really was.

The stills at the entrance

These seem to be retired now, but they showed us the stills in actual use later on.

Barley

The barley is a bit different from what is used for beer.

Peat

I gave it a sniff and it did not have that distinctive ammonia smell. Maybe that is how it is supposed to be..

The washbacks

These are the vats where the barley is fermented.

The wash, still at the juice stage

Once it has fermented enough and produced alcohol, it goes through the stills to raise the proof.

The wash stills

There were quite a variety of stills. I suppose that is how they create such distinctive whisky flavours.

The spirit stills

The stills for the second distillation all had different shapes too. Drawing out such a range of spirit must be what lets them make whisky of this quality.

Casks

There are various types of cask, and since Hakushu is in such a cold place, they told us they use small casks to speed up the maturation.

With the factory tour over, we head to the tasting room.

The tasting set

If you choose the course called Takumi no Waza, you get to taste a range of new-make and cask spirits. If you look closely you can see that the new pot, that is, the spirit before it goes into the cask, is completely clear and close to pure alcohol, and it is only once it goes into the cask that it becomes whisky. The one labelled Smoky is a spirit made with a heavy dose of peat.

The aroma kit

Sniffing them, you can definitely tell the difference.

Hakushu highball

Hakushu was deliberately made with more peat to set it apart from Yamazaki, but for a peat lover the peat aroma is on the weak side, nowhere near a Scotch. So for the same price I think Yamazaki is the better buy, but when it comes to highballs, Hakushu wins. Fill a glass with plenty of ice, pour in a little whisky, and top it up with Suntory soda water, and the taste is fantastic. The key is to get the glass, the whisky and the soda thoroughly chilled. I think I need to throw a highball party next summer.

The station

After the tasting I came back to the station. It still looks light out, but by the time I get home it will be nine..

Around the station

Well, I picked up a lot of good information and got to drink the Yamazaki 25, so it was a really rewarding trip. For my palate, Yamazaki 18 is still the tastiest. And since the Hakushu highball was better than I expected, I have resolved to drink it often once summer comes around.

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