Karuizawa is producing whisky again. “After more than 20 years Japan’s most legendary whisky distillery is back,” proclaims the official press release. It’s an exciting venture, but start reading into the “reopening” and you might be left wondering what exactly is going on.
The original Karuizawa distillery closed in 2001. In 2016 the site was demolished. Since then it has become an internationally renowned brand, clocking up awards and becoming one of the most valuable whiskies in the world.
Now a new distillery, built in a different location—it’s now in the town of Karuizawa itself—is producing whisky under the Karuizawa name. The reopening has given rise to some interesting discussions. Ultimately, the discussion on what makes a distillery worthy of any particular name is a conversation that is relevant not just to Karuizawa
The Rise And Fall Of Karuizawa
The original Karuizawa distillery was founded as a winery in 1934 and began distilling whisky in 1956. Like most scotch at the time the whisky was largely used in blending, with the exception of a limited number of single malt releases in the 1980s and 90s. These single malts were moderately successful in Japan, however, in 2001 Karuizawa became a victim of the popularity of Shochu. It was closed in favor of whiskies that were better suited to blending requirements of the time. A few hundred casks remained and were released as single malts intermittently, these went on to become highly sought after collector’s whiskies. And if this story sounds familiar you’re not imagining things; a similar situation happened with Port Ellen, Brora and Rosebank in the 1980s. All poignant examples, as we’ll see below.
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In 2007 Number One Drinks became licensed international distributors for Karuizawa, which was owned by Kirin at the time. In 2011, despite one of their early releases winning an award in the same year, the distillery was permanently closed and Number One Drinks bought the final casks in bulk. Some of these were bottled and released by Number One Drinks, while some casks were also sold to other international bottlers.
In 2015 Whisky Magazine announced that Karuizawa had toppled The Macallan from the number one spot in their MWI (Malt Whisky Index). By 2017 whisky from the closed distillery was setting more records. But it was too late. By March 2016 the demolition of the original Karuizawa distillery was complete.
The New Karuizawa Distillery
In 2022 a new distillery built in the town of Karuizawa quietly opened. It has been built by Shigeru Totsuka around 7 km from the original site, but uses the same water source and has the same climate. For the construction Totsuka enlisted the help of Osami Uchibori as an advisor. Uchibori was the Master Distiller at the original Karuizawa distillery before it closed giving an unparalleled continuity to the production between the new and old distillery.
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Uchibori sadly passed away before the completion of the new distillery. Totsuka was fortunate to also work alongside Uchibori’s apprentice, Yoshiyuki Nakazato, who is now Master Distiller at the new Karuizawa. This continuity between old and new is a core part of the new setup. But the team acknowledges that the new spirit will have differences.
“While they are working to recreate the same profile of spirit, it will of course not be a carbon copy of the liquid produced pre-2000,” a spokesperson for Dekanta, who are working alongside Karuizawa for international marketing, explained to me over email.
“There is also real continuity beyond just the name, most profoundly in both the personnel and methods. Both Uchibori-San and Nakazato-San were reunited to advise and lead the distillation, with Nakazato-San now the Master Distiller. Given much of the distillation process is manual, he brings his own hands-on experience with him.”
The equipment is new but built to replicate the old setup. “The Forsyth stills are built as replicas of the originals, complete with idiosyncrasies (narrow downward lynearms, a pinch in the neck and flat bottoms).”
They have extended their honoring of the old in other areas too. The wood has been carefully sourced to reflect the sherry seasoning the world has come to expect from world class Karuizawa. “The casks are almost entirely first-fill Oloroso casks, ‘real’ bodega casks as opposed to seasoned.” Karuizawa was once the smallest distillery in Japan, and the capacity of the new distillery will be even lower at around 110,000L per year.
What’s In A Name?
In a recent article on the opening Dave Broom summed up the general issue around the use of the Karuizawa name:
“The issue isn’t the opening of a new distillery in Karuizawa—after all Komoro is already up and running there. It lies in the name, and the easy way that this fact can be blurred so that people are led to believe that this is the old place reopening. The use of the same name for the new distillery and whisky is trading on the goodwill and reputation of the old, demolished, distillery.”
I understand and completely respect this sentiment. It is important that consumers understand what it is they are buying. But the reality of the whisky industry is the rebuilding, relocating and changing of distillery names is something that has been done over and over again.
In 2018 another “new” distillery opened. This year they have honored the new spirit produced in their painstakingly recreated “replica” stills. That distillery is, of course, Macallan. Unlike Karuizawa, Macallan’s new distillery did not elicit a debate over whether they could continue to use the name Macallan. Yet there are a lot of similarities with what’s happened at Karuizawa: similar site, same water, same staff.
More recent examples can be seen in the spate of “closed” or “silent” distilleries that have reopened over the last few years. Brora reopened in 2021 (closed 1983), Rosebank in 2023 (closed 1993), and Port Ellen after years of delays finally produced its first spirit again in 2024 (closed 1983). All three distilleries had to be completely rebuilt, with new equipment and as far as we can tell—different master distillers.
Plenty of distilleries started off in different locations, or with different names, or both. The Brora distillery was the Clynelish distillery until they built a new Clynelish next door—the original distillery was temporarily closed and reopened under the name Brora. That distillery closed in 1983 and reopened in 2021 to much acclaim.
In the US the whisky industry works differently to Scotland, with large centralized distilleries making whisky for multiple brands. The Buffalo Trace distillery produces the whisky for at least 17 brands, including Buffalo Trace, George T Stagg, Blanton’s and Pappy Van Winkle. Are they misleading their consumers too, or is the brand what’s important?
If you’re still not sure, let’s think about it a slightly different way: Would you query Rolex or Ferrari if they moved their factory, bought new equipment or replaced their head of design? Or do you just care that its design and creation has been overseen by the production line of the brand you trust?
A brand is more than just a location, a creator or a bottle; a brand sits above and encompasses all of those things. And yes, the trust with the new Karuizawa must still be earned, but it being somewhere else is not reason to dismiss it.
Now We Wait
To criticize the team behind the rebirth of the Karuizawa distillery over how, where, or by whom the whisky is created, is actually to draw attention to the discrepancies in the whole of the industry. The whisky market is dominated by brands. Certainly brands build their reputations on quality, but at a certain point it goes beyond that, and those brands have become as much about the status symbol as the drink.
I am not saying that the current status quo is right or wrong, but maybe we should not be criticizing Karuizawa and the team behind it for doing something that is common across the industry. Instead maybe we should be looking at this industry as a whole and seeing if we can make it clearer for consumers.
“I strive to produce a liquid that both respects and surpasses the old Karuizawa whisky,” explains Yoshiyuki Nakazato, Master Distiller at Karuizawa. Ultimately the proof over whether the team have recreated a whisky that deserves the Karuizawa name won’t come for another 10 years, which is their minimum aging period.
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