I live in a small city in the Mie prefecture called Ise. When I first searched for the Chichibu Distillery a few years back, the Maps app showed me the only options to get there would take 8 or 12 hours… I thought to myself: “Well, I guess it’s not for me”.

This past February I traveled to Tokyo for unrelated reasons and someone suggested taking a train to the Chichibu Whisky Matsuri… Hmmm… just a bit more than an hour on a nice train called “La view”. Getting tickets for the Matsuri (festival) was an ordeal but thanks to the amazing whisky community, I was able to attend, and had a blast. After this, just going to Tokyo and then to Chichibu didn’t sound so bad.

Now onto the trip itself: 

The Distillery isn’t open to the public, so I was thrilled with my local bar owner told me he was organizing a visit with other bar owners and I could come with them. The only bar to have a great selection of whisky and incredible food is very close to my house and the owner is great, lucky me! If you ever come to Ise, Mie… please visit “Nousagiya” for plentiful drinks and oven-cooked delights.

The bars decided MONDAY was a good day to go, so I had to oblige. That gave me the chance to go to Tokyo from Saturday to Tuesday… Thanks to my wife for taking care of the fort during my absence.

My great friends J and F (you can find them on social media as “Whisuki”) invited me to their residence to have some drinks after lunch on Saturday. Meet up was about 450km away from my house. I took my first train at around 6 am…

We went for lunch at a “fancy” food court with craft beer and after about an hour, we went up an elevator nearby to their apt. First thing was to check out their whisky selection… OMG. Great selection of PREMIUM whisky and the kind premise “Grab whatever you like”.

Single cask and other exclusive bottles from MARS, KANOSUKE, SAKURAO, HAKUSHU, YAMAZAKI, NIKKA, ICHIRO’S MALT, THE SINGLE CASK JAPAN, etc.

Great drams, great company, great talks. We met up with more friends for dinner and then headed up to bar “Entrust”. They have a nice variety of rum, and whisky. We were able to have some Hanyu 20 year-old single malt.

Sunday came around and I met David from “Alohawhisky” and his entourage to have a Filipino lunch. Then with my amazing hosts K and C we attended a little house BBQ which ended up being just pure suffering due to the intense heat. After this, my knee (reconstructed) decided to fail on me and I could not walk anymore. Thankfully, I was with my almighty friend K and he helped me back home.

PANIC!!! “My leg doesn’t work and I have a visit to the Chichibu Distillery tomorrow”!!!!!!

I hoped that rest would help my body recover their non-pain stage by tomorrow morning… I had a pair of bed beers and a shower and went to bed at 9pm hoping for the best. 

THE DAY HAS COME: Meet up at Chichibu Station at 13:00. 

Wake up, take a shower, and head to Ikebukuro to take the rapid train to Chichibu. All in an old-man pace and also very early. Got to Chichibu, went to the convenience store to buy some snacks and drinks, eat something before it’s too late, and walk the 750 meters from Seibu Chichibu to Chichibu station.

I try to sit the most I can and to do everything slowly so my knee doesn’t fail anymore… It’s working…

Met the group (9 people), took a few taxis to the Distillery and in a whim we were at the entrance being greeted by the worldwide known YUMI. Took a little rest and had some water and soon enough TARO, who is the Chief of the second Distillery started with the tour.

First, we went to their older distillery, smaller pot stills, mizunara washbacks, and more traditional methods and most done by hand and heart. He explained everything systematically making sure we all understood by asking us if we had any questions after every step. Then he guided us to their dunnage whisky cellar where their oldest casks sleep and where the aroma of wood and whisky is exhilarating.

After that, they took a couple cars from their own company/staff and drove us to the newer distillery Chichibu ll. Just a two-minute drive but it was pointed out that it would have taken us more than 20 minutes to walk it due to the hills going up and down like crazy.

The view here is so different, everything is huge, the amount of barrels everywhere is staggering, the buildings are new, but let me continue with the tour…

Powerful de-stoner for the grain, huge grain silo, everything done by the tonne, bigger stills (both Distilleries use Forsyths equipment), French oak washbacks, and more modern methods helped with computers, automatic temperature controlled equipment and a lot more staff… although most staff work at both Distilleries if I remember correctly.

Distillery I produces rich new make spirit in smaller quantities and Distillery ll goes for lighter new make spirit and bigger yields.

After finishing our tour at their newer Distillery II we were greeted a few steps away by more staff at their Rackhouse cellar with capacity for more than 10,000 barrels, the smell here was different; it was mostly alcoholic, as most of the barrels have been recently put there. Still a great smell, in my opinion.

After walking around thousands of different barrels from well-known Bourbon and wine houses, we were witnesses to a cask being lifted and placed onto their highest spot at the warehouse, that forklift is state-of-the-art.

Back to the small visitor center at the Distillery l where they provided us with a refillable glass of water and an empty whisky glass. We were invited to try their whisky at will. They have lined up some of their core range whiskies and a few special editions.

Then comes the kicker, TARO brings a bottle of a CASK SAMPLE of a Second-fill ex bourbon at cask strength asks us “Is there anything specific you want to try?”

Before anyone could say anything he proceeds to bring a few more cask samples. The selection for the day was MADEIRA, OLOROSO, T5 (wine), and MIZUNARA.

Then I asked for a BEER cask sample and to my delight, most of the group agreed it was one of the best!!!

Back to Tokyo

Took the same rapid train to Ikebukuro to meet a couple friends for Mexican/American dinner. We had tacos, loaded fries, margaritas, jalapeno poppers, and non-stop beer.

So happy and excited because my leg was ok and we were heading to ALOHAWHISKY for after-dinner drams. I was a bit tired so it wasn’t a rampage. My bro K had a Ben Nevis flight while I just had whatever sparked my attention or David recommended. Daftmill 2006, Bunnahabbain 28, Macduff 27, Arran 18, Chichibu by SMWS “While away the hours”, Lagavulin 12 CS, Bunnahabbain 18 and some others.

Had a quick huge beer with my bro and host Mr. K and we were home not so late…  

The next day just the normal “go back” routine… shower, pack, and take trains to finally arrive in Ise Tuesday 4pm. WHAT A TRIP!!!! 

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Armando Cornejo Whisky & Cigars | 🇲🇽 Mexican in Japan 🇯🇵. 宜しくお願いします！ To view other reviews from Armando, click here! Follow him: Instagram | TikTok