The Hombo family, owners of Mars Whisky, first took out a licence to distil whisky in 1949, although it was not until 1960 that they began making it, at a purpose built plant in Yamanashi rather than at home in Kagoshima. The plant was run by Kiichiro Iwai, who had been Masataka Taketsuru’s superior at the spirits firm Settsu Shuzo and who sent Taketsuru to Scotland in 1918 to learn how whisky was made. By the time Taketsuru returned, the firm’s plans for Japan’s first whisky distillery had fallen through. He went on to help build Yamazaki before founding Nikka, and the rest is history.
When the Yamanashi plant opened, Iwai used Taketsuru’s original report as his guide, and the whisky was, unsurprisingly, heavy and smoky. He also designed the plant’s pot stills and is regarded as a pioneer of pot still whisky in Japan. After nine years, Yamanashi switched to wine and distilling moved south to Kagoshima, where two small pot stills continued to make a heavy, smoky style.
In 1985 production moved to the current Mars Shinshu distillery in Nagano, high in the Japanese Alps, chosen for its altitude, which encourages slow maturation, and for its soft, granite filtered water. With the move came a change to a lighter, sweeter style, full of soft honeyed fruit. Unfortunately, the timing coincided with the start of Japan’s whisky downturn, and Mars closed in 1992. As demand returned, the distillery reopened in 2011.
Vegan Friendly Wines
