Komasa Jyozo celebrated their 135th birthday in 2018. Kanosuke Distillery, which launched in 2017, also enters their second year. Building upon the trials and errors of the first year, the company is aiming to take a step further in the distillery's second season. Whisky Galore editor Mamoru Tsuchiya sits down with Komasa Jyozo president Yoshitsugu Komasa to ask about these new challenges.
Photos: Tsuchiya Mamoru
Translation: Whiskey Richard
This article originally appeared in Japanese in Whisky Galore Vol.13 / April 2019.
Mamoru Tsuchiya (below, MT): It's been about a year since the birth of the Kanosuke Distillery. Looks like things are going well.
Yoshitsugu Komasa (below, YK): Thank you. In December 2018 we released our 8 month old new born, and it's been well-received. A certain website that reviews Japanese whisky said it was "the most impressive since Ichiro Akuto's new born." The feedback has been excellent, to the extent that even we are shocked by it.
MT: Has your second season of distillation already kicked off?
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Mamoru Tsuchiya is Japan’s foremost whisky critic. He is the Representative Director of the Japan Whisky Research Centre, and was named one of the “World’s Best Five Whisky Writers” by Highland Distillers in 1998. He served as the whisky historian for NHK’s Massan and he has published several books such as The Complete Guide to Single Malt Whisky, Taketsuru’s Life and Whisky, and The Literacy of Whisky. He is the editor of the bimonthly Whisky Galore, Japan’s only print whisky magazine.