The Niseko Distillery was established in Niseko Town, which is blessed with rich nature and beautiful water. The distillery, which produces whiskey and gin, is a group company of Hakkaizo, a Niigata-based company famous for its famous sake “Hakkaisan. What is the reason for embarking on the production of Western-style sake in a place so far away from Niigata?
Whiskey distillery in the resort town of Niseko
Niseko Town is surrounded by Mt. Located on the west side of central Hokkaido, Niseko is a year-round tourist resort where canoeing and trekking can be enjoyed in summer, and skiing and snowboarding can be enjoyed in the excellent powder snow in winter. Niseko is also known for its agriculture, which takes advantage of its hilly terrain and produces high-quality potatoes, melons, asparagus, and other produce. In a quiet forest in a corner of Niseko, there is a distillery that started production of whiskey in March 2021. It is the Niseko Distillery.
The group company is Hakkaisan Brewery, a sake brewery founded in 1922 in Minamiuonuma City, Niigata Prefecture. The company’s Hakkaisan sake is famous for its light, delicious flavor and for sparking the local sake boom. In addition, Hakkaizyozo is also focusing on developing products other than sake, such as beer and shochu. The brewery also aims to diversify its sales channels by operating restaurants and cafes.
Both Uonuma and Niseko have beautiful nature. Whenever Nagumo, the group’s representative, visited Niseko, he found the environment surrounded by natural forests in the Niseko area to be a very nice place. He also learned that the town of Niseko had its own policy of limiting the height of buildings in order not to spoil the natural landscape, and this was one of the main reasons he felt empathy for the town’s attitude of coexistence with nature.
Mr. Hayashi, the manager of the Niseko distillery, says, “The water used to make the distillery is of good quality.
The distillery uses high-quality water from the Niseko Annupuri River. The Shiribetsu River that flows through Niseko has been repeatedly recognized by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism as the clearest river in Japan, which is a testament to the quality of the water. The basin’s cool summer climate is also suitable for whiskey making, and these conditions were decisive in selecting the land.
Although we don’t sell it, we have actually already started making whiskey with rice in Niigata in 2016. We were also involved in shochu making and barrel shochu, and had gradually accumulated techniques and data on distillation. Meanwhile, our president, Jiro Nagumo, had visited Niseko to learn more about the town’s thriving ski resort. It was through this connection that we were approached by Niseko to brew sake.
The relationship with Niseko, with its well-developed sake brewing environment, and Hakkai Brewery’s spirit of pursuing the possibilities of sake brewing beyond sake led to the start of whiskey production using barley malt.
Showing” the story of sake brewing
When constructing the distillery, the distiller was conscious of “showing” the sake brewing process.
The first thing that catches the eye in the distillery, which is made of larch from the Shiribeshi region, is the presence of the distillers. The two pot stills for whiskey and the distiller for gin are a sight to behold. At the bar counter, visitors can enjoy gin and cocktails made at the distillery, as well as Hakkai Brewing’s products, with the whiskey and gin distillers as accompaniments.
In a facility like a distillery, the production process is open to the public, but the tour space is generally separated from the distillery by a wall or glass. However, we wanted to create a distillery that people could see, hear, smell, taste, and touch… and feel with all five senses, so we purposely did not create any partitions that would block them from seeing the distillery.
The distillation vessels, which are often placed low, are placed at eye level so that they can be easily seen. In addition, the distillery’s store and bar are open to visitors during business hours. The distillery also offers tours that guide visitors through the production process (by reservation only for a small number of people) and includes time for tastings, providing a mechanism for many people to learn the story of “whiskey and gin making.
Hayashi also emphasizes that he wants to focus on the delicate taste that is unique to Japanese whiskey.
Whiskey is made from a variety of ingredients. Many factors affect it, such as the brewing water, the ingredients used, and the natural environment where the distillery is located. It is difficult to put into words, but we are trying various things to make a well-balanced and harmonious whiskey.
For example, the type of wood used for the casks in which the whisky is stored greatly affects the aroma and flavor of the whisky. We currently use oak barrels, but eventually we would like to mix and match different types of wood, including oak barrels that have a unique aroma. If we use barrels that were originally used for bourbon or wine, we can mix the essence of those liquors. Of course, we are also talking about eventually using barrels made in Japan. says Hayashi.
Distilled spirits and whiskey are created through distillation, which is the process of further evaporating the fermented alcohol made from not only barley but also rice and other ingredients. We believe that we can make the most of the intuition for making sake, which uses yeast for alcoholic fermentation that the Group has cultivated.
In the fermentation process, it is said that stainless steel fermentation tanks are easier to maintain. On the other hand, the flavor of whiskey is deepened only when it is fermented slowly in wooden fermentation tanks.
The reason is that lactic acid bacteria, which have a positive effect on fermentation, live in wood. However, because things other than lactobacilli also live in the wood, it is very difficult to manage the black tanks.
Even though it is time-consuming to manage the tanks, they want to take the time to ferment and improve the quality. As for the storage environment, Niseko Distillery takes advantage of Niseko’s cool climate to promote slow and gentle maturation.
Collaboration with local students on gin
Basically, Japanese whiskey must be aged for at least three years. Niseko Distillery’s whiskey is still in the barrels. So Niseko Distillery has launched a gin called “ohoro,” which is a distilled spirit that does not require long aging. Unlike whiskey, gin can be made by adding botanicals, mainly juniper berries, to the distillate. As a result, gin’s popularity has been slowly increasing in recent years as a highly flexible drink.
While unique craft gins are being created in various regions, “OHORO aimed to create a classical, royal road gin,” according to the company. I hope that the gin created in Niseko will be enjoyed by many people for a long time to come, just like London’s Dry Gin, which is widely loved around the world as a base for cocktails,” he said. That’s why we named it ‘ohoro,’ which means ‘to continue’ in the Ainu language,” says Hayashi. While focusing on whiskey production, Hayashi would also like to explore the creation of various types of gin.
The gin “ohoro GIN Limited Edition LAVENDER,” which uses lavender, the town flower of Niseko, and “ohoro GIN Limited Edition JAPANESE PEPPERMINT,” which uses Niseko’s Hakka as the key botanical, were both released as seasonal and limited-quantity gins. The lavender gin was first released as a seasonal and limited-quantity gin.
The lavender gin was first released in collaboration with students at the local Niseko High School. We bought the lavender grown by the high school students and used it fresh to give it a rich aroma. Now we are producing more and using lavender grown by designated farmers in the town in addition to the lavender from Niseko High School, and selling it as “town-grown lavender gin” only during the summer season.
Unique taste with fermentation technology cultivated in a sake brewery
Hayashi and his team believe that “the real work begins after the 10-year product is made. In other words, you could say that the Niseko distillery has just started its journey. However, the distillery also emphasizes that it is not only the final “storage” stage that tends to attract attention in whiskey making, but also the process before that that makes the difference between distilleries in terms of taste.
For example, before distilling, there is a fermentation process where the yeast creates the various components that determine the flavor. We have confidence in our yeast, koji, and fermentation techniques because we are a sake brewery that has been involved in the production of sake and shochu. We would like to incorporate this into our whiskey making process to create a new unique flavor.
Hayashi says his goal is to spread the taste of Niseko Distillery’s whiskey not only in Japan, but also overseas.
At the same time, we want to be a distillery that is rooted in the town of Niseko and the region, but there are still some areas that are not well known even among the local people. First of all, we would like to increase our efforts in cooperation with the local people, like the collaboration at OHORO.
But that doesn’t mean he wants to compromise on the maturation period, saying, “When we have a whiskey of a quality that we are happy to release five or ten years from now, that’s the time for us to make it. The journey of the Niseko Distillery has only just begun.
