Every year, Whisky Talk Fukuoka draws tens of thousands of whisky lovers from all across Japan and the really the world to the biggest and most exciting whisky festival in Kyushu, Japan. Ask anybody and they'll easily name Whisky Talk Fukuoka as one of the top three must go whisky festivals in Japan - and the festival's not shy about it. The festival's marketing collaterals and aesthetics typically feature super high contrast, almost post modern, edgy, bumblebee yellow and black backdrops to an otherwise mouth-y fire engine red shouting whisky bottle - you've got to see it for yourself, and you'll instantly get it.

Established in 2010 by bartender Kazuyuki Higuchi and local Japanese distributor Tsuzaki Trading, which in turn is helmed by one Shoji Utoda, the festival has just as well become a hit for the its commemorative whiskies specially selected by Utoda - after all, the man had stuck it out and championed Japan's cult craft distiller Ichiro Akuto and his distillery Chichibu far before anyone else, so surely the man knows a thing or two about good whiskies. Show the people you can catch lightning in a bottle and the whole world will show up at your festival hoping to score the next big find - isn't that how it works?

Meet Shoji Utoda, The Man Who Took A Bet On Chichibu, And Eventually Created One Of Japan's Greatest Festivals

Shoji Utoda, now in his 50's, like many others, got into whiskies when he had encountered and enjoyed the spirit with his friends during his time in college. Born in the small town of Kuju in the Oita Prefecture, he had left for college to study agriculture. Whilst there he began visiting bars with his friends and it was there that he came to learn of single malt whiskies, and had found himself really enjoying its taste. This might seem rather rudimentary today, but in those days, Utoda elaborates that whiskies weren't as they are today, and it was more common in Japan for people to drink it in the form of a mizuwari cocktail (1/4 whisky, 3/4 sparkling water, garnished with mint). After graduating from college, Utoda-san would work a corporate job for several years before eventually deciding to move back to Kuju to work at his family's liquor store, all the whilst visiting bars around the city as he continued to learn about whiskies. Somewhere along the way, Utoda-san began to dream that he would one day distill his own whisky, a goal that would have seemed unlikely at the time with the Japanese whisky scene dominated by only big players and conglomerates. 

And yet, as fate would have it, Ichiro Akuto would one day come up to Utoda-san looking to sell some whiskies he had recently bottled himself - they were the first Hanyu whiskies that Akuto had salvaged from his grandfather's distillery which had been mothballed and whose whiskies were on the verge of being dumped if not for Akuto having stepped in. 

Ichiro Akuto, with the now legendary Hanyu whiskies.

"On average, he had to go to ten bars to sell just one bottle. The objections were always the same: it was expensive, it was (too) characterful in flavor, and Scotch was better. With the Card series, a little later, it was the same story. He had to go to a hundred bars to sell three cases. Then, slowly, there was more interest from abroad, and later on, also in Tokyo... but Kyushu is very different. There's a strong shochu culture here, so when I was trying to sell Ichiro's Malt at my liquor company, the reaction was usually. "Ichiro, the baseball player?"" says Utoda, as quoted in the book Whisky Rising by Stefan van Eycken.

Today, all of that must seem rather unbelievable, with hoards of whisky fans hoping to score a meeting with Akuto, and would pay incredibly lofty sums hand over fist for Hanyu whiskies - a reality that is in part the doing of Utoda as well. It's said that in the early days, Utoda would take long train rides across the country with bags stuffed with Hanyu whiskies, helping Akuto to get his whiskies into bars across Japan.

Tough Times Don't Last, Tough People Do

Yet perhaps the biggest score would come in 2011 when Whisky Talk Fukuoka was in its second year. As Utoda's Tsuzaki Trading would help with selecting the whiskies that would be specially bottled in commemoration for the festival, Utoda would of course have Akuto's Hanyu whisky bottled - and it was not the big hit you'd expect. Nevertheless, in ways impossible to quantify, the numerous years of Utoda's frontlining of Akuto's whiskies can certainly be said to have helped Ichiro Akuto stay on long enough for the now highly esteemed Chichibu to get off the ground.

"In 2011, for the second edition of Whisky Talk Fukuoka, we bottled a Hanyu single cask. We had about 180 bottles, but could only sell one third at the event. It took us a year and a half to sell the rest. For the 2012 edition, a Hanyu puncheon was selected and the outturn was over 400 bottles. We knew we wouldn't be able to sell that much, so we offered half to Number One Drinks who sold the bottles abroad. Even so, it took us a year to sell our allocation. It wasn't until 2013, when we bottled a single cask Chichibu that interest in Japanese whisky had grown to the point where we were able to sell the entire outturn at the event." says Utoda in Whisky Rising.

It's Now Or Never

Along the way, Utoda would begin to hear of more and more stories of folks who too were inspired to start their own craft whisky distillery in Japan, Shizuoka Distillery's Taiko Nakamura being one such example.

And so by 2015, Utoda would begin to put together this plans for his very own distillery - the first order of business: decide where his distillery should be located. For Utoda, this was easy, for it had to be Kuju, where he was born and raised, and had gotten his foot into the whisky business. Establishing his distillery in Kuju, simply named Kuju Distillery, was also significant as it had brought back whiskymaking to the Oita Prefecture after a 20-year quiet period, which was marked by the closure of Nikka Whisky's Kyushu Factory in 1999.

His decision was further aided by the site having once held a sake brewery by the name of Kobayakawa Shuzo - this might not seem like much, but for the quick witted Utoda, this had meant that the site was in access of high quality water. After all, it was a big preoccupation of sake brewers to find the highest grade of water they could to brew with (and thus only Japan features lists like the "Top 100 Water" which is compiled by the Ministry of Environment). The site had nevertheless been left in disuse after the brewery had closed decades ago, yet Utoda's suspicions were confirmed when after drilling into the area, the team had found an abundance of water underneath.

Utoda-san would then set about assembling the distillery by getting his hands on the best distillation pot stills, which came from Scotland's Forsyth's - and yet, before Utoda could get it up and running, a global tragedy would strike: the Covid pandemic. As a result, with only a container of distilling equipment arriving on site, Utoda had to enlist the help of local contractors, Hirano Shoten, to help get the equipment assembled very tediously via daily video conference calls to Scotland. Even though the contractors had worked previously with Shochu and Sake makers, this was their first project that focused on whiskies. And so for 10 hours everyday for half a year, the team in Japan and Scotland would gradually complete the setup piece by piece.

With the distillery in place, both Utoda and his whiskymaker Takeishi, would need to now learn the craft of whiskymasking. And where else would Utoda learn from other than the best - and also a person that he had come to know very well by now - Ichiro Akuto at the Chichibu Distillery! It's even said that Ichiro has been seen at the Kuju Distillery on several occasions to help out. Takeishi too would head to another serious whiskymaker Tsunuki Distillery (of Mars Whisky) to receive his training. In order to make his dream a reality, Utoda would crowdfund his project with investment coming from bartenders, fellow liquor retailers and even several key investors from overseas.

Kuju Distillery would finally run its first distillation on 20 February 2021.

What's Kuju Been Up To

With 3 years under their belt, they've produced several Newborns - distilled spirits that would be whiskies once they turn of age - and have also produced a world whisky blend, called Green Dram, which sees the combination of whiskies brought from overseas with Kuju's own whisky. Five Newborn expressions in, each featuring ever more aged spirit, Kuju has finally been able to upgrade its Green Dram world whisky expression to a fully qualified World Blended Malt Whisky, as the Kuju whisky component is now legally considered whisky having been aged for 3 years. And so following the timelines, we should see a full fledged Kuju Japanese Single Malt Whisky very soon!

And so with distilling well underway and a single malt expression on the horizon, let's take a look under the hood and see what powers Kuju Distillery!

Making Kuju's Japanese Single Malt

Kuju Distillery operates year round and carries out the whole process of whiskymaking entirely within its distillery - from milling of the barley to mashing and producing the wort, and then of course fermentation, distilling and then ageing of the whiskies in a dunnage style warehouse next to the distillery. Whilst the distillery started off using imported barley, it's set its sights on gradually moving towards the use of local barley ever since 2022. Whilst most of the whisky produced is non-peated, just two months of a year the distillery uses peated malt (40-50 ppm) as well. Each week, the distillery is able to produce the equivalent of ten barrels of whiskies, and thus far it has been reported that its warehouse currently already stocks over 500 casks filled.

The early washbacks used by the distillery were interestingly made of repurposed enamel-coated Sake tanks, it has since refitted all five washbacks to being made of Douglas fir, keeping all fermentation to being carried out in wood. Distillers yeast is applied and fermentation runs for 92 hours, after which distillation is done in a single wash still and a spirit still. The distillery hopes to produce a fruity and rich spirit akin to Speyside Scotch whiskies.

Much of Kuju's whiskies, as we've seen with the Newborns, are matured in the classic ex-Bourbon barrel - 70% to be exact. The remaining 30% of whiskies are aged in everything from ex-Sherry, ex-Brandy, ex-Rum and ex-Calvados barrels, which should allow the distillery to get a better sense of how their whiskies take on the flavours of these casks.

With Kuju's incredible story, the amount of support it has, and a single malt on the horizon, the distillery will prove to be one that should be on your map very, very soon.

PS. Shoutout to Stefan van Eycken's Whisky Rising Vol. 2 for filling in more colour to the Kuju story! If you're a fan of Japanese whiskies - THIS is the book you must get your hands on!

Kanpai!

@111hotpot