When you think of whisky, the first thing that comes to mind is probably either Scotch whisky, or American bourbon. But I think more and more people are starting to realize that Japan is putting out some whiskies that easily rival anything coming out of Scotland.
And Nikka has some serious history behind it — the man who founded Nikka Whisky, Masataka Taketsuru, was actually one of the first people to brew whisky in Japan back in the 1920s (yes, Japan’s history with whisky is relatively recent).
The distillery tour at the Miyagikyo Distillery is generally fairly interesting, though like with the Kirin Brewery tour in Tokyo, there are some language hiccups.
The tour is only offered in Japanese — they do, however, have a headset you can use to (sort of) follow along with the tour. The snippets of audio from the headset add up to something like five minutes in total for a tour that lasts about 45 minutes. So you’re not quite getting the full tour experience, but it’s better than nothing.
Plus, like with the Kirin tour, it’s completely free, and samples are provided at the end.
In this case, we were given three samples: Single Malt Miyagikyo, Super Nikka Rare Old, and Nikka Apple Wine.
Both whiskies were quite enjoyable, though the Single Malt Miyagikyo had a more satisfying flavour and was definitely my favourite of the two.
The apple wine surprised me. I was expecting this to taste like boozy apple juice, but it wasn’t nearly as sweet as I was expecting. It also had a vague caramel-like flavour. I quite enjoyed it.
And then, of course, the tour ends in the gift shop, where you can buy bottles of whisky or various souvenirs. You can even pay to sample some of Nikka’s other whiskies, including some varieties that might be difficult to find elsewhere, but I was feeling pretty tipsy after just the three, so I passed.
Location: 1 Nitsuka, Aoba-ku, Sendai-shi, Miyagi-ken 989-3433
How to find it: It’s kinda in the middle of nowhere. You can either take the train to Kumagane station and then take a bus from there, or go to Sukanami station and walk (it’s about a half hour walk from the station).