Chichibu's Ichiro's Malt wins World's Best at the WWA for the eighth time
Venture Whisky of Chichibu, Saitama, has won the top prize in the Blended Limited Release category at WWA 2026, its eighth world title overall.
Venture Whisky Co., Ltd., based in Chichibu in Saitama Prefecture, has won a world’s best award at the international whisky competition World Whisky Awards (WWA) 2026. The category was Blended Whisky Limited Release. This is the eighth time the company has won the award. The city of Chichibu presented the company with a letter of appreciation for spreading the city’s name around the world through whisky.
Eighth world’s best award
According to the blog of the mayor of Chichibu, the company first won a world’s best award in 2017. That year the category was Single Cask Single Malt. A single cask whisky is one bottled from the contents of just one cask. Since then it has won the world’s best award many times in the Blended Whisky Limited Release category. It won four years in a row from 2018 to 2021, and again in 2023, in 2025 and now in 2026. That makes seven world’s best awards in the same category of limited-quantity blends. It shows that the company is repeatedly receiving high praise in the same category.
The makers of Chichibu
The president and representative director of Venture Whisky is Ichiro Akuto. The company operates in the Chichibu Midorigaoka Industrial Park in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, north-west of Tokyo. Chichibu is a town set in a basin surrounded by mountains. The company’s whisky is known as Ichiro’s Malt and is one of the leading brands of Japanese craft whisky. That a maker from a small town keeps achieving results on the international stage is one example of the strength of Japanese whisky-making.
How to enjoy blended whisky
Blended whisky is made by combining several whiskies of differing character to build the flavour. The skill of the blender, who decides which whiskies to combine and in what proportions, has a great influence on the taste. The award-winning bottle is a limited release, so it is not easy to get hold of in Europe. A good place to start is a specialist whisky shop or a well-stocked bar, where you can look for a bottle of Ichiro’s Malt. First try it neat to appreciate the aroma, then add a few drops of water. The way the aroma opens up will change, and the depth of the blend becomes easier to appreciate. If you would like to know which categories Japanese makers are recognised in, keep an eye on the WWA results announcements too.
Sources
This article was written by The Sake Wire editorial team, summarising the public sources listed above. Images are our own.
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