Chichibu Fifty Two Seats of Happiness

The Japanese distillery of the moment was founded in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, who comes from a family of distillers having previously owned the lost Hanyu distillery. Ichiro had always been around whisky, working for Suntory and had travelled to Scotland to learn more. Eager to re-establish his family heritage and produce a single malt Japanese whisky. This became a reality in 2011 with the first whiskies that were enthusiastically received. Demand has continued to soar and with it the reality that Chichibu could not produce enough to satisfy demand and establish a 10 year old expression. A Chichibu #2 distillery was established nearby and started distilling in 2019. It is capable of producing 5 times the amount of the original distillery and has some subtle differences from washbacks to how the stills are heated, with a longer fermentation time.