Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery: Visit to an amazing whisky tour in Hokkaido

Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery is a Japanese whisky distillery located in Hokkaido. It’s the home to Nikka Whisky, which is one of the oldest and biggest producers of Japanese whisky. I visited the distillery in 2017 summer and had an amazing time at their museums, whisky bars, and the tour.

The entrance of Yoichi Distillery looked like a European castle.

The distillery was established in 1934 as a “dream place” to create whisky to the father of Japanese whisky Masataka Taketsuru. He looked all over Japan for the perfect place to create his dream whisky. Yoichi was a perfect place, having the similar climate to Scotland.

Getting around the distillery

You can choose to participate in the guided distillery tour or just walk freely. The guided tour is conducted in Japanese only, but it includes opportunities to visit tour participants-limited sights, too. If you are walking freely, they have a guidance smartphone app to help you find the way.

They also have multilingual pamphlets.

Multilingual pamphlets of Yoichi Distillery are in English, Korean, and Chinese

The distillery is pretty big, so I recommend to spend at least three hours here.

The guided distillery tour

I participated in the tour, which lasted about 50 minutes and it was free of charge. They took us around most of the buildings with explanations in Japanese. (The tour is available only in Japanese as of August 2017)

The former office of Taketsuru, the founder of Nikka Whisky.

Pot stills, includes the first pot still which has been used from 1935.

Pot stills, includes the first pot still which has been used since 1935.

Nikka Whisky still follows the traditional way for distillation: using coals. They do the distillation only in spring and autumn.

The pot stills have Japanese religious ropes around to wish for good whisky production. This is because Taketsuru was born in a sake brewery family who followed Japanese traditions.

We learned how to make whisky during the tour

The tour showed one of the storehouses. Barrels looked pretty old.

Whisky Museum shows the history of Japanese whisky and very informative exhibitions about whisky in general.

The reproduced pot still. You can touch it!

Taketsuru went to Scotland to study about creating whisky. The exhibition showed his hard work on producing delicious whisky.

Taketsuru went to Scotland to study creating whisky. The exhibition showed his hard work on producing delicious whisky.

The tour ends with free-tasting time. You can get to taste three kinds of liquors at the tasting bar: Pure Malt Whisky Taketsuru, Blended Whisky Super Nikka, and Apple Wine. Free-tasting is available to everyone, even to those who walked freely. However, everyone needs to submit a “tasting card,” in which you have to write down the name, birthday, etc. You can find the card on the first floor of Nikka Kaikan, where the free-tasting bar is located.

The tasting area was pretty spacious.

Get glasses at the bar counter

From the left: Pure Malt Whisky Taketsuru, Blended Whisky Super Nikka, and Apple Wine.

They offer water, ice, and soda at the bar which can be used to drink with whisky samples. Their recommended way to drink is twice up for Taketsuru, Mizuwari (Ice 3, water 2, whisky 1) for Super Nikka, and on the rocks for Apple Wine.

There is also a vending machine where you can buy snacks to pair with whisky.

The vending machine. It was selling chocolates, cheese, mixed nuts, etc.

I got the Nikka original whisky chocolate!

Whisky chocolate, tasted pretty nice!

The tasting bar is pretty spacious with many tables and chairs, so you won’t have problems finding a seat. I recommend getting a seat near the window. It must be so beautiful in winter with snow!

Enjoy the paid tasting bar “Whisky Club”

If you love whisky and willing to try something exclusive here, you should definitely stop by “Whisky Club”, the paid tasting bar inside Whisky Museum.

The entrance of Whisky Club, quite an atmosphere, right?

You can taste Nikka’s and other famous whiskies from 150 yen (15cc)! They have a menu book with pictures of bottles, so choose what you want to try from the menu book and ask the bartenders. They will pour 15cc and pay when you receive the glass.

Single Malt Yoichi 12 years. This one ended selling in 2015, so it is very hard to find at bars outside!

The must have here is Single Cask Malt Whisky Yoichi. This is limitedly provided at Whisky Club, and it was ¥1,000 for 15cc.

I would say just stopping here is worth the visit to Yoichi Distillery. The price is unbelievably low and whisky is seriously delicious. (I would say you don’t have to try free-tasting if you plan to stop by Whisky Club)

“Whisky and wine lamb shabu-shabu” lunch at Restaurant Taru

Yoichi Distillery has a restaurant called Taru where they offer foods and drinks. I had lunch there because I wanted to try their super delicious looking whisky and wine lamb shabu-shabu!

The Restaurant Taru

The left part contains wine soup, and the right part contains whisky soup

It actually tasted pretty nice. I did not feel alcoholic flavor, but lamb tasted quite good when it’s cooked in wine and whisky.

They had other Hokkaido local dishes like soup curry, ramen salad, spaghetti and cutlet, Ghengis Khan, etc.

The restaurant did not have so many seats, and I had to wait about 30 minutes to get in during lunch time. If you plan to visit the restaurant, you should make sure you have enough time.

Lastly, don’t forget to stop by their souvenir shop

Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery’s souvenir shop is pretty amazing.

The exterior of the souvenir shop

Inside the souvenir shop

They had quite numbers of souvenirs from alcohol to snacks, and their Yoichi distillery limited whisky looked pretty popular. They also have small bottles and boxes containing different kinds, which is perfect for presents back home.

Yoichi Distillery limited blended whisky

Yoichi Distillery limited single malt Yoichi had three different flavors: salty & peaty, sherry & sweet, and woody & vanillic.

I enjoyed my first visit to Yoichi Distillery so much and spent almost 6 hours! I will definitely come back here in winter to see the snowy scenery and taste different whiskies at the paid tasting bar Whisky Club.

Yoichi Distillery was extremely beautiful

How to go to Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery

I strongly recommend using public transportation because under Japanese law, you are not allowed to drive if you have even a sip of alcoholic drinks.

Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery is only 2-3 minutes walk from JR Yoichi Station. The easiest way to get there is by train, but you should be careful that there are not many numbers of trains from Otaru Station. There is also buses from Otaru Station. For details, please refer to the official website.