Yoichi Whisky Distillery

Driving from Lake Toya🚗 to Otaru, I passed a sign for Yoichi along the way. Discovering that Otaru and Yoichi are quite close, I suddenly added a visit to the Yoichi Whisky Distillery🥃🏭.

The first bottle of "Nikka Whisky" was released in 1940, marking the distillery's glorious beginnings. To this day, the distillery retains its original stone buildings and Taketsuru's former residence, creating a sense of time travel. Yoichi Distillery adheres to the traditional "direct coal-fired distillation" method, using a coal stove to heat the stills. Peat is added during the drying of the barley🌾, giving the whisky its distinctive smoky and fruity flavors.

If you're well prepared, you can book a 70-minute guided tour, which takes you inside the distillery, warehouse, and NIKKA Museum, where you'll hear the story of the Taketsuru couple's love and struggle📖. At the end, there's a free tasting of Super Nikka blended whisky or Yoichi single malt.

However, since we added this tour unexpectedly, we were only able to visit the museum and enjoy a paid tasting of the whisky. We also stopped by the souvenir shop and bought apple juice and whiskey as souvenirs.
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Yoichi Whisky Distillery
📬 7-6 Kurokawa-cho, Yoichi-gun, Hokkaido, Japan 046-0003
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Post by followmetoeatandplay | Oct 26, 2025