About
Revival of the legendary Karuizawa whisky brand at a new distillery in the town of Karuizawa itself (the original was in nearby Miyota). Opened December 2022 by Shigeru Totsuka, 16th-generation sake brewer from Saku. At 850m elevation. Master Distiller Yoshiyuki Nakazato was factory manager at the original distillery. Can hold ~100 barrels, with plans for a 3x expansion warehouse. First Japanese whisky release targeted for 2033 (10-year maturation). Also associated with Komoro Distillery (KDI). Address: 2785-318 Hotchi, Karuizawa-machi, Kitasaku-gun, Nagano Prefecture.
Production Details
The Karuizawa (New) Tale
In the highland town of Karuizawa, where the Japanese Alps cast their shadows across volcanic soil, something sacred has been reborn. Here at 850 meters above sea level, where crisp mountain air carries the memory of ancient forests, Shigeru Totsuka has chosen to resurrect a legend.
December 2022 marked not just the opening of a new distillery, but the completion of a circle. The original Karuizawa distillery, which had made some of Japan's most revered whisky in nearby Miyota, fell silent years before. Now, in the very town that gave the brand its name, copper and flame breathe life into that legacy once more.
Totsuka brings sixteen generations of sake brewing wisdom to this venture, his family's understanding of fermentation and the patient alchemy of grain stretching back through centuries of Japanese craftsmanship. This is monozukuri in its purest form—the art of making things with devotion, precision, and an almost spiritual attention to detail that transforms mere production into creation.
Standing beside him is Yoshiyuki Nakazato, who once walked the floors of the original Karuizawa as factory manager. His hands remember the rhythm of that legendary stillhouse, the particular way Highland Scottish tradition bent and shaped itself to Japanese sensibilities. Now those same hands guide the rebirth, ensuring that what was lost might live again.
The highland water that flows from these volcanic slopes carries the mineral memory of the earth itself, the same character that once defined Karuizawa's distinctive voice. In the modest warehouse, space for one hundred barrels waits to cradle the new make spirit, though plans already exist to triple that capacity as the whisky sleeps toward its 2033 awakening.
This is patience made manifest—a decade-long meditation in wood and time. The Japanese understanding that true quality cannot be rushed, that the finest things emerge only when craft meets contemplation, when tradition serves not as constraint but as foundation for something genuinely new.
In this thin mountain air, where seasons change with dramatic intensity, a new chapter of Japanese whisky begins its quiet transformation.