Chichibu Limited Edition Japanese Whiskey Founded by Ichiro Akuto creating an independent company and bottler, specializing in excellence, called Venture Whiskey.

Chichibu is a small distillery in the Japanese province of Saitama. Despite its extremely limited single malt production, and perhaps because of it, Chichibu whiskey is highly coveted around the world. This brand is increasingly valued in the world of whiskey auctions, and of course, the best restaurants and Best Bars in the world look for it to put it in their showcases and increase the exclusivity effect. Qantima Group exclusively imports this brand, continuing with its policy of discovering the best spirits in the world with a “WoW”. Taking its name from the city in Japan, the Chichibu distillery first opened its doors in 2007. It was the first new distillery built in Japan since the 1970s.

Although very limited by the size of its distillery, Chichibu has worked to put all its mastery and craftsmanship into its production. The distillery has its own malting, and each year a portion of the malt they use is made from locally malted barley. Currently, the barrels in which the distillery’s spirits age are made from Japanese Mizunara oak.

Since 2016, Mizunara casks have been made by a pair of in-house coopers, and as of 2019, they have begun using local wood instead of sourcing it from Hokkaido in the far north of the country.

The distillery is equipped with a 2,400 liter mash tun, which is used by hand. It also has eight Mizunara washbacks and a single pair of stills, each of which has a capacity of 3,000 liters. Most of the malted barley not grown by local farmers is imported from England. Chichibu can currently produce 60,000 liters of liquor a year, never enough to satisfy its fans.

Chichibu has also acquired a sister distillery, a bigger sister if we compare the scale of the two. The second Chichibu distillery was built a short distance from the original and began production in July 2019. This much larger distillery has an annual production capacity of 240,000 liters and is intended to produce more robust spirits than the original.

Due to their small size, the rare official bottlings that come from Chichibu tend to sell out quickly.

The first official bottling of whiskey from a distillery, known as Chichibu the First, came out in 2012.

The last large-scale bottling was Chichibu The Peated 2018, although even that can be difficult to track down these days.

However, with thousands of casks maturing in their warehouses, and more added all the time, more releases can certainly be expected.

Limited Editions.