Tanzawa Distillery moves from blending imported spirit to distilling its own

Tanzawa Distillery, in Yamakita Town, Kanagawa Prefecture, to the west of Tokyo, has begun distilling whisky spirit in-house. Since starting operations in 2024, the distillery has made its products by blending spirit bought in from Scotland. This year it has entered the stage of distilling its own spirit from barley. For a small producer that had relied mainly on contract exports to China, the shift towards its own spirit reflects a changing Japanese whisky industry.

The idea of softening the edges with binchotan charcoal

The distillery is run by Zero-Ichi Whisky Co., Ltd. of Ota Ward, Tokyo, and its representative is Mamoru Hashiguchi. It uses groundwater from Nakagawa in Yamakita Town, which adjoins Tanzawa-Oyama Quasi-National Park, and blends Scottish malt and grain spirit. The whisky is then filtered through Kishu binchotan, a traditional hard white charcoal from Wakayama Prefecture, which is the distinctive part of the process. The current products are bottled at 46% ABV and come in two versions, finished in bourbon casks and in sherry casks, priced at 5,500 yen per 700ml. Annual production is about 40,000 bottles. Mr Hashiguchi felt that strongly characterful whiskies divide opinion, so he looked for a way to soften the sting of alcohol in a short time. After trying filtration through stone, ultrasound and freezing, among other methods, he settled on binchotan. The aim is a whisky that works as a “food drink”, one that pairs easily with a meal.

From contract exports to China to its own brand

Zero-Ichi Whisky was formed as a spin-off from DELImotto Co., Ltd., a company whose main business is prepared side dishes. Previously, it exported about 28,000 bottles a year to China of “Shingen”, a whisky it had planned itself and had a Yamanashi Prefecture company produce. It began searching for a distillery site in 2018 and started operations in Yamakita in July 2024. It first put in place blending and filtration in-house, and has now begun the final stage, distillation. Changes in the export environment may lie behind this. According to Japan’s National Tax Agency data, the value of Japanese whisky exports to China has stayed below the previous year’s level in recent years. Distilleries have also been multiplying rapidly within China.

What European readers should watch

The first release of the in-house spirit is expected in about three years. That is likely to be the first indicator of whether the transition succeeds. When choosing Japanese whisky in Europe, checking on the label or in the importer’s description where the spirit was distilled will show you the difference between blended and in-house distilled products. A style aimed at the dinner table is easier to understand if you sip it little by little alongside food, rather than comparing its character on its own.