Distillery
Yamazaki
In 1923, the entrepreneur Shinjiro Torii set out to make a Japanese whisky to rival Scotland's best. He built Yamazaki in a misty valley on the edge of Kyoto, Japan, where the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers meet. It became the country's first commercial malt whisky distillery. The site was chosen above all for its water. Locals call it Rikyu no Mizu, a soft, pure spring once prized by Japan's great tea masters. The damp, foggy climate also helps the spirit mature slowly in cask. To run the new distillery, Torii hired Masataka Taketsuru, a young chemist who had studied whisky-making in Scotland. Taketsuru later founded a rival distiller and is now remembered as the godfather of Japanese whisky.
