List of products by brand Shizuoka Distillery
The distillery is one of the fastest rising stars in Japanese whiskey.
His initial claim to fame was the purchase of the former Karuizawa stills.
They've since proven it wasn't just a gimmick.
Shizuoka Distillery is located in the forested hills west of Shizuoka City. And that city is about 1.5 hours by Shinkansen bullet train, south of central Tokyo.
Taiko Nakamura was inspired on a distillery trip to Scotland and decided to build his own distillery near his hometown of Shizuoka.
His wife Mika imports Scotch whiskey with her company Gaia-flow. So they were already in business with the whiskey drink.
As an engineer, Taiko had his own installation company and used this knowledge to build a distillery that was very traditional on the one hand and very modern on the other.
As you walk through this beautifully located distillery, you will notice the beautiful wooden sinks, as well as the state-of-the-art check valves and level indicators.
For Japanese whiskey connoisseurs, the name Karuizawa has an almost mythical meaning.
The stills of this disappeared distillery were part of Taiko Nakamura's plans when he designed the Shizuoka distillery.
Previously, he had bought these stills at an auction.
Unfortunately, however, the karuizawa stills were awful to use, except for one.
Shizuoka Distillery now has 2 stills produced by Forsyth's in Scotland and 1 still which previously served Karuizawa a long time ago.
The "old" Karuizawa still in production is back in production. But even the 2 "Scottish" stills are nothing short of special. Especially the "Wash Still" can be described as such.
This is in fact heated directly with wood fire in the boiler under the alembic.
Throughout the day, an employee stokes the fire by adding logs to the fire.
From what I understand it is the only one still in use in a whiskey distillery, or at least one of the very few.
Something that no longer happens, but which gives the whiskey a special character.
In an interview, Nakamura said, "Open fire distillation using firewood, which was first implemented about 200 years ago, is also a result of my passion for making whiskey using the nature of Shizuoka When I came up with this idea though, there was no distillery that I could draw inspiration from.
“It was really challenging for me. Then I asked one of my friends, a baker who built his kiln in Okinawa.
I asked his advice on my idea of making whiskey over an open fire, then he introduced me to a pizzeria with a huge Kamado.
The owner introduced me to his Kamado maker in Tokyo. Finally the manufacturer built our Kamado. It took two years between having the idea and turning it into reality."
By combining the expression of the two distillers, Shizuoka single malts are born, considered among the best in the world.
