Chichibu Distillery

Founded by Ichiro Akuto of independent bottling company Venture Whisky, Chichibu is a small distillery in the Japanese Prefecture of Saitama. Despite the fact that its single malt output is limited, or perhaps because of it, Chichibu whisky is fiercely coveted around the world.

Taking its name from the central Japan city it sits on the outskirts of, Chichibu distillery first opened for business in 2007. It was the first new distillery built in Japan since the 70s.

Though limited by the size of their operation, Chichibu have worked to put as much local sweat and craft into their production as possible. The distillery has its own floor maltings, and each year a portion of the malt they use is made from local barley malted on site. These days the casks which the distillery’s spirits are aged are made from Japanese Mizunara Oak. Since 2016 Mizunara casks have been made by a pair of in-house coopers, and as of 2019 they have started using local wood rather than sourcing it from Hokkaido in the far north.

The distillery is equipped with a 2,400 litre mash tun which is stirred by hand. It also has eight Mizunara washbacks and a single pair of pot stills, each of which has a 3,000 litre capacity. Most of the malted barley which is not grown by local farmers is imported from England. Chichibu can currently produce 60,000 litres of spirits a year, never enough to satisfy its fans.

Chichibu has also already acquired a sister distillery, a big sister if we’re comparing the scale of the two. The second Chichibu distillery was built just a short distance from the original, and began production in July 2019. This much larger distillery has an annual production capacity of 240,000 litres and intends to turn out more robust spirits than the original.

Due to its small size, the rare official bottlings which come from Chichibu tend to get snapped up quickly. The first official distillery bottling of whisky, known as Chichibu the First, came out in 2012. The latest large scale bottling was Chichibu The Peated 2018, though even that can be hard to track down these days. With thousands of casks maturing in their warehouses however, and more added all the time, further releases can certainly be expected.