At the home of famous whiskey

When the doors of the factory opened, the complex, bittersweet scent of fermented barley wafted out. I was at the Suntory Hakushu Distillery in the Hakushu area in Hokuto, Yamanashi Prefecture. 

I made the visit because I’d been watching the NHK TV drama series “Massan”, documenting the lives of Nikka Whisky founder Masataka Taketsuru and his wife, and also because I wanted to see how whiskey is manufactured. 

“A distillery in the middle of a forest is rare in the world,” Takeshi Ono, 49, manager of the distillery, said.

In other countries, whiskey distilleries are mostly in places like moors, where the peat used to smoke and dry the malt is easily acquired. 

However, Suntory built the Hakushu distillery – and also its Yamazaki Distillery in Shimamoto, Osaka Prefecture – places with plenty of greenery and cool, clear running water.

The Hakushu distillery is located about 700 metres above sea level near the border with Nagano Prefecture. It is roughly two hours from central Tokyo by express train. As the public is allowed to sample its products, it attracts many tourists.

An intricate process in which fermented barley wort is distilled in pot stills yields a clear, transparent liquor that is stored in casks made of several species of wood such as Mongolian oak, and over several years or even decades of ageing, it takes on its amber colour. Whiskey from a variety of casks and ages is blended together to produce the finished products. The distillery still had casks from the year of its founding in 1973.

I was allowed to sample four of their products. Hakushu, blended from relatively young whiskeys, is smooth, but as the age increases from 12 years to 18, and then 25, the colour deepens, and aromas like cantaloupe and flavours like ripe persimmon come out, imparting a complex, multi-layered flavour.

“The rain in the forests of the Southern Alps slowly percolates underground and becomes the water we use for making whiskey,” Ono stressed. “The various microbes living on the wood of the casks are an indispensable part of making the unblended whiskey. It is precisely because of this wonderful forest that we can make this whiskey.”

I understood the reasons behind the company’s efforts to preserve the forest, including tree-planting and periodic thinning.

Since there are few places to stay in Hakushu, I spent the night at Hoshino Resorts Risonare Yatsugatake near JR Kobuchizawa Station. It is known for excellent multiple-course Italian cuisine that pairs wine with local beef and vegetables from the surrounding highlands.

In addition to the beautiful reds, yellows and greens of the vegetables served as an appetiser, each had a rich flavour, complimenting the white wine made by a local vintner. The Koshu wine beefsteak, made from a brand of cattle raised on feed into which grape dregs left over from wine pressing are mixed, is also a perfect match for the bold red wine. 

“The chef visits the local farmers personally to procure the vegetables, and brings out the best in the ingredients,” the hotel’s publicist Daichi Yumoto, 31, said, describing the hotel’s efforts to serve dishes using locally sourced foods.

The following day, I headed back to Hakushu, crossing the suspension bridge near Chikuu Komagatake Shrine and walking along the Ojiragawa Valley. As I went deeper in, I saw many waterfalls and deep pools, such as Sengabuchi, Jinjataki falls and Fudotaki falls.

The leaves had begun to change colour and were dazzling to the eye. Heading down into the valley and directly touching the clear waters of the stream, whose source is Kaikomagatake mountain, I felt it was only natural for a place famed for its water to produce famous whiskey.

 

Travel tips

It is about two hours from JR Shinjuku Station in Tokyo to Kobuchizawa Station by Chuo Line limited express train. It is a 10 to 15-minute drive from the station to the Suntory Hakushu Distillery and the central Hakushu area, and a 40-minute drive to the Ojiragawa Valley.