Eigashima- The White Oak Distillery

The Akashi Strait in the Hyogo Prefecture of Japan is very famous for one particular type of Japanese food- Black Nori seaweed, used to wrap around sushi rolls. Along the coastline, hundreds of motorboats dart about, dragging nets of the salty delicacy from the ocean, also one of the richest and most eulogised fishing areas around Japan. The great 7^th Century poet Kakinomoto no Hitomaru was influenced by the mists around the Strait and it is the now home to one of the newest Japanese whisky distilleries, Eigashima… or is it??

Technically, Eigashima or The White Oak Distillery is one of the newest in the sense that whisky has been produced sporadically at the distillery only since 1984, when the micro distillery concept was highly popular, giving rise to a boom time for the spirit.  However, mounting costs and a rise in the popularity of domestic Shochu forced the distillery to limit their production of whisky, often using it to supplement cheaper Japanese blends. In 2007, Eigashima released their very first single malt- an 8 year-old bottling, which was received well internationally.  A 2^nd bottling of 5 year-old whisky has also been released and interest is growing steadily in the distillery, which has actually managed to trace its whisky distillation heritage back to around 1919 – surprisingly four years before the foundation of Yamazaki. Will the history books be re-written?  We doubt it, but fondly look forward to the future of this new (but old) distillery!