Discover two distinct Japanese spirits in one place at the facilities of Akashi Shurui Jozo, where traditional sake brewing and modern whisky distillation coexist. This guided experience allows you to choose between a sake brewery tour, a whisky distillery tour, or a full experience combining both, offering a rare opportunity to understand the philosophies and techniques behind each craft. Your journey begins in the visitor center, where your guide introduces the history, environment, and production mindset that shape both sake and whisky. Guests selecting the sake brewery tour will step into the brewing area to learn how rice, water, and fermentation create sake’s delicate balance, while gaining insight into seasonal work, craftsmanship, and the subtle decisions that influence flavor. The experience concludes with a guided sake tasting, allowing you to connect production with taste and understand the character of the brewery’s creations. Guests selecting the whisky distillery tour will enter the Kaikyo Distillery, beginning with an explanation in the seminar room before moving into the mash tun room and distillation area. Here, you will observe the equipment and environment where whisky begins its transformation. A highlight of the experience is the rare opportunity to nose freshly distilled spirit, allowing you to encounter whisky at its earliest stage before maturation. The tour concludes with a guided tasting of aging whiskies, including components that will form future Kaikyo single malt releases, offering a unique chance to taste whisky while its future is still developing. Guests who select the combined tour will experience both sake brewing and whisky distillation in a single visit, comparing two different expressions of Japanese fermentation and distillation culture. By experiencing both processes and tastings, you will gain a deeper appreciation of how tradition and innovation exist side by side in Akashi. This is not simply a tasting, but a chance to witness spirits in the making, from fresh new distillate to matured whisky and refined sake, all shaped by the people, place, and time that define their character.
