Japan, Saitama. Distillery operational. Owner: Venture Whisky.

Independent & family-ownedIt was in 2007 that Ichiro Akuto, grandson of the founder of the Hanyu distillery, built a new distillery in the north-west of Tokyo, in Saitama Prefecture. Named Chichibu after the city where its located, it brought to a close several decades marked by the closure of numerous production sites, and enabled Ichiro Akuto to renew his family's history of expertise. Despite its small size (production capacity of 80,000 LPA/yr), Chichibu quickly drew attention and became highly sought-after. It was under the name “New Born” that Ichiro sold exclusively his malt for three years. In 2011, the first edition of a small batch Chichibu named The First was released (7,400 bottles). It was immediately welcomed by distributors and the world's whisky enthusiasts, putting Chichibu on the fast-track to becoming a distillery with strong potential as a collectible. Since then, Ichiro has released numerous single casks to respond to consumer demand, increasing the distillery's appeal among collectors. And its next goal? To produce a whisky whose origins is completely Japanese, using local malt and peat.

Chichibu On the Way, 2019 Edition. In an approach not dissimilar to Ardbeg’’s Very Young, Still Young and Almost There, Ichiro Akuto wanted to show the different stages of his whisky along the way to the distillery’’s first 10 year old, released in 2020. After the first On the Way in 2013, composed of whiskies aged three to five years and a second in 2015 with whiskies aged five to seven years, this is the last Chichibu On the Way, this time composed of whiskies aged seven to ten years and aged in bourbon and Mizunara (Japanese oak) casks. A limited edition of 11,000 bottles.