History

Originally a vineyard in the city of Miyota, established in 1955, the Karuizawa distillery began production in 1956, one of three distilleries owned by the Mercian Wine Company (producer of Japanese wines and liquors) who produced a whisky blended from all three distilleries.

in 1959, the Karuizawa Distillery became the first distillery to export whisky overseas. 

Karuizawa was the smallest distillery in Japan but in the late 1980s Mercian launched Karuizawa as a single malt still sought after by those in the know. 

Karuizawa was bought and owned by Kirin Holdings Company Limited in 2007 before it was mothballed. Sadly it was closed in 2011 after more than a decade of inactivity. Karuizawa was already mothballed when Mercian was taken over by Kirin in 2007 and it fate sealed. Now dismantled, the once ivy covered buildings housed four stills. 

The distillery shipped its golden Promise malted barley from Simpson’s of Berwick in England and a large proportion of the whisky produced was matured in European oak Ex-Sherry casks. 

In 2011, the Number One Drinks Company, owned and run by David Croll of Japanese Whisky Magazine fame and the Whisky PR, Marcin Miller, bought the last few hundred casks of Karuizawa from Kirin and have since been slowly releasing these as both single cask bottling and blends. One of these single cask releases is the famous and rare Noh Collection. 

But Kirin could not sustain the premium whisky production, so the Karuizawa distillery and its sister distillery at Kawasaki closed in 2011. When Karuizawa was completely shuttered in 2012, the pot still and other equipment were removed, and what could be sold was sold off. As Karuizawa is now a rare, world-famous whisky, its price has almost doubled in recent times. Currently it’s not easy to get one’s hands on a bottle.