Gold-medal gin "Yuki no Mado" now in a 120ml tasting size

Tankyu Distillery, at the foot of Daisetsuzan National Park in central Hokkaido, the northernmost of Japan’s main islands, has launched a 120ml mini bottle of its flagship “Yuki no Mado Dry Gin”. Until now the gin came only in a 500ml bottle. The new small size, enough for roughly three gin and tonics, makes it easier for first-time drinkers to try.

Daisetsuzan water and 13 botanicals

“Yuki no Mado” is made with snowmelt from Daisetsuzan, which includes Hokkaido’s highest peak, Asahidake, and with 13 botanicals (plant ingredients used for flavouring). Alongside juniper berries, it uses yuzu, a Japanese citrus fruit, todo-fir (todomatsu), a conifer common in Hokkaido’s forests, lavender and more. Its distinctive ingredient is rice koji. Koji is rice on which koji mould has been grown, essential to making sake and miso, and in this gin it gives a sweetness with depth. The distillery describes a fresh citrus and conifer aroma followed by a gentle sweetness that fades softly. The gin is 45% ABV, with a recommended retail price in Japan of 1,540 yen including tax.

Gold medals in under a year

Tankyu Distillery is a new distillery that opened in August 2025. It follows a “public facility, privately run” model, in which the town provides the facilities and a private company operates them, and it produces gin and single malt whisky. It is committed to using local ingredients, such as rice from Higashikawa and todo-fir from the area’s forests. “Yuki no Mado” went on sale when the distillery opened and, within a year, won a gold medal at the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition (TWSC) 2026. It also took gold at The Gin Masters 2026, organised by the British trade magazine The Spirits Business, where all four of the distillery’s entries won gold.

Checking the aroma with a small bottle

The distillery’s recommended serves are simple: a gin and tonic with 40ml of gin and 120ml of tonic water, or a gin and soda with 120ml of soda water. With soda, the aroma of the ingredients comes through unchanged, and a slice of lemon, orange or grapefruit adds freshness.

There is currently no announced sale in Europe, but it may be worth asking specialist shops and importers that handle Japanese craft gin. If you do get hold of a bottle, first sniff a small measure neat, then try it with soda to compare how the sweetness of the rice koji comes through. The combination of yuzu and todo-fir is rare in typical European dry gins. As a way into new Japanese distilleries, it is also worth following the results of international competitions such as the Gin Masters.