Chichibu Distillery

秩父蒸留所 / Chichibu Jōryū-sho

Continuing his success, which grew from the establishment of the hugely popular Hanyu Card Series, Ichiro Akuto began distillation at the brand new Chichibu distillery in 2008, which can be found about 80km to the North West of Tokyo. Presently using a mixture of imported malt from Germany and England, Ichiro Akuto aims to locally source his raw materials for the future, including Japanese peat. The wooden wash backs he currently uses are manufactured from Japanese oak, so a distinctly home-grown theme is emerging.

So far, Chichibu has released 2 editions of Malt Spirit, (a 14-month old double-matured bottling & a heavily peated 3-month old) both of which has been highly commended by the international whisky community. Indeed, all eyes will be on the distillery this year when the fruits of Ishiro’s labours are finally realised and the very first Chichibu single malt whisky from under his tenure will be released.