Mars Komagatake & Chichibu Malt Duo Blended Malt – Shinshu Aging

Komagatake/Mars: Hombo Shuzo, the company behind Mars Distillery, produces many different styles of alcohol, starting with shochu in the early 1900s. They really started producing whisky in 1949 with the help of Mr. Kiichiro Iwai, an icon in the Japanese Whisky world. Shinshu is the main distillery which is in the Nagano Alps and Japan’s highest whisky distillery. The second is the Tsunuki distillery in Kagoshima, an island in the south of Japan. In this release, they have taken their classic Iwai Tradition blended whisky and finished it in Chestnut Casks.

Chichibu Distillery has its roots all the way back to the 1940s when Ichiro’s family started producing whisky at Hanyu Distillery. Eventually, in the downturn of whisky in the 1990s, forced Hanyu to close its doors. Ichiro still releases some of the Hanyu whisky under the Playing Card series. This whisky has become legendary alongside the whisky produced at his now own distillery, Chichibu. In 2008 he built his current distillery and has quickly become a Japanese Whisky fan favorite.