1. SANRAKU OCENA GROUP FOOT PRINT & GENEALOGY
Sanraku Ocean became 3rd biggest whisky distillery group in Japan when Sanraku and Ocean were merged in 1962. They concentrated on Karuizawa distillery for malt whisky and Kawasaki distillery for grain whisky with coffey column still. But they closed Kawasaki distillery because of losing competition with Suntory and Nikka. Kirin became owner and decided closing Karuizawa distillery during end of Japanese whisky ice age although Karuizawa single malt was getting many awards in international whisky competitions as same as Suntory and Nikka.
Shizuoka distillery by Gaia Flow took over some facility of Karuizawa distillery.
Sanraku Ocean Genealogy
1 Sanraku
Sanraku Ocean had many backgrounds because of many companies merging/merged history but there were 2 main companies among those companies, Sanraku and Ocean.
Sanraku was oroginally established as Showa Shuzo in 1934 and changed name to Sanraku Shuzo in 1949. They had 2 whisky distilleries, Kawasaki distillery in 1958 and Yamanashi distillery in 1961.
After merged as Sanraku Ocean in 1962, Kawasaki distillery became main grain whisky distillery but
Yamanashi distillery stopped in 1965 because Sanraku Ocean decided to focus on Karuizawa distillery as main malt whisky distilery in the group. Yamanashi distillery restarted whisky distillation between 1967 and 1969 but completely terminated and specialized to wine production in 1969.
2 Ocean (Daikoku Bodoshu)
Sanraku Ocean had many backgrounds because of many companies merging/merged history but there were 2 main companies among those companies, Sanraku and Ocean.
Ocean was oroginally established as Kaisan Shoten for wine production in 1886. It was subsidiary of Takara Shuzo between 1934 and 1946. They started whisky production in Tokyo factory in 1946. They built new distillery Shiojiri in 1952 but moved to another new built distillery Karuizawa in 1955 because of non suitable environmental for whisky around Shiojiri.
After merged with Sanraku in 1962, Sanraku Ocean chose Karuizawa distillery as main malt whisky distirelly instead of Yamanashi distillery due to distillation facility and new pot quality. (Karuizawa distillery was using copper pot still although Yamanashi distillery was using stainless pot still)
3 Sanraku Ocean
Sanraku Ocean which was established in 1962 was 3rd biggest whisky distirelly group and competed hardly with Suntory and Nikka during 1960s-1970s.
They installed coffey column still in Kawasaki distillery in 1969 which is just 6 years afer Nikka installing it and they opend 5,000 Ocean bars throughout Japan as like Toris bar by Suntory. However they were going to lose competition because Suntory was much bigger general liquor company and Nikka was supported by Asahi beer which was also huge liquor group in Japan.
They stopped distillation in Kawasaki distillery in 1987 and they were shifting to wine from whisky because of Japanese whisky ice age. They changed company name to Marcian which was their wine brand. They became subsidiary of Kirin in 2006 but Kirin decided that Mercian specialized to wine and closing Karuizawa distillery. Karuizawa distillery stopped commercial distillation in 2010.
4 Mercian
Sanraku Ocean changed company name to Marcian which became most famous wine company and wine brand in Japan today.
In fact, name of Marcian was wine brand of small companies which was merged by Sanraku Shuzo in 1961. The company is Nissin jozo which was originally founded as Nihon Renyu for sonar material production in 1944. Founder was 2nd son of Daikoku Bodoshu founder (1st son was president of Daikoku Budoshu).
After WW2, they started wine production as subsidiary of Nisshin Oil Mill. They changed name to Nisshin jozo when they independented and launched Mercian wine brand in 1949. Nisshin Jozo was merged by Sanraku Shuzo in 1961 but their Mercian brand became company name in 1990 because Sanraku Ocean (merged with Ocean in 1962) shifted to wine business from whisky business after losing competition with Suntory and Nikka.
Mercian became subsidiary of Kirin in 2006 and Kirin made Mercian focus on wine business. Mercian is most famous wine company and wine brand in Japan today.
1955-2000 Karuizawa distillery (Daikoku)
Karuizawa distillery was founded by Daikoku Budoshu (Budoshu means wine in Japanese/Sanraku Ocean in later days) in 1955 which is 2 years after they closed Shiojiri distillery due to non suitable enviroment(Too much Fe contents in water) for whisky production.
It was selected as main malt distillery in Sanraku Ocean because of copper pot still although Yamanashi distillery with stainless pot still was closed. Whisky by Karuizawa distillery got many awards in international whisky competions IWSC and ISC as same as Suntory and Nikka.
However Kirin who merged Sanraku Ocean in 2006 decided to close Karuizawa distillery in 2010. It was pity because it's was end of Japanese whisky ice gae and single malt by Karuizawa distillery is ultra premium whisky in world today.
1958-1987 Kawasaki distillery (Sanraku)
Kawasaki plant was originally founded for sake production in 1935 by Sanraku and they started whisky distillation there as Kawasaki distillery in 1958. But they moved makt whisky distillation to Yamanashi distillery in 1961 and Kawasaki distillery was specialized to grain whisky.
After Sanraku Ocena establishment in 1962, Kawasaki distillery was main grain whisky distillery and coffey column still was installed in 1969. But it stopped distillation and caffey column still was moved to Yashiro plant in 1987 because they were losing competion with Suntory and Nikka.
In 2009, some grain whisky casks didtilled between 1976 and 1982 were found in Yamanashi prefecture. It was bottled as Kawasaki single grain whisky by Chichibu distillery and released to market.
1961-1969 Yamanashi distillery (Sanraku)
Yamanashi distillery was founded for main malt whisky distillery of Sanraku. But after Sanraku merged Ocean, they needed to choose Yamanashi distillery or Karuizawa distillery (main malt whisky distillery of Ocean) as main malt whisky distillery of Sanraku Ocean.
Finally Karuizawa distillery was selected and Yamanashi distillery was closed although Yamanashi distillery had more modern facility and building. Because Yamanashi distillery was uising stainless pot still although Karuizawa distillery was using copper pot still.
Some buildings remain as Chateu Mercian Katsunuma winery aging cellar.
1952-1955 Shiojiri distillery (Daikoku)
Shiojiri distillery was founded for main malt whisky distillery of Daikoku Bodoshu. But it was closed in 1955 and facility was transferred to thier new distillery Karuizawa because water around Shiojiri had too much Fe contents for whisky making.
Some building remain as Chateu Mercian Shiojiri winery aging cellar.
Sanraku Ocean distilleries story
Ocean bar vs Torys bar
Suntory launched Torys bar in 1950 to promote their whisky and number of it was going to increase and reached to 2,ooo in 1960. They also launched Suntory bar in 1958. The number of Suntory bar and Torys bar including franchise reached to 35,000 in Japan at its peak.
Other whisky producers also started their own bar chain including Alice whisky, Morozoff whisky and Ocean whisky around 1954. (Nikka started a little later). Especially Ocean competed hardly with Suntory and they had 5,000 Ocean bar without franchise.
Those bars installed whisky and cocktail in lifestyle of normal Japanese.
Karuizawa distillery VS Yamanashi distillery
Yamanashi distillery was founded in 1961 as malt whisky distillery of Sanraku Shuzo and Karuizawa distillery was one founded in 1955 as malt whisky distillery of Ocean. Sanraku and Ocean were merged as Sanraku Ocean in 1962 and they needed to choose one of them for production capacity optimization.
As a result, Kariuzawa distillery was selected as main malt whisky distillery although Yamanashi distillery was newer with more modern facility and more room to expand. Because new pot of Karuizawa distillery made by copper pot still is better taste than one of Yamanashi distillery made by stainless pot still. Yamanashi distillery terminated distillation in 1969 and it was converted to aging cellar. It is part of Marcian Katsunuma winery today.
Picture is blended whisky label which mentions that bottle contains malt whisky of both Yamanashi distillery and Karuizawa distillery.
Kawasaki single grain whisky
Kawasaki distillery stopped distillation and coffey column still was replaced to Yashiro in 1987. In 2009, some grain whisky casks distilled by Kawasaki distillery were found in Yamanashi prefecture.
These casks were bottled as Kawasaki single grain whisky 1976, 1981 and 1982 by Chichibu distillery and released to market. These were more than 30 years aging single grain whisky, it means longest aging Japanese grain whisky in Japanese whisky history.
Last distillation at Karuizawa distillery
Karuizawa distillary ended commercial distillation in 2000 and they were only bottlign stock casks but they did last distillation in 2006. It was only 2 months but it became very important seed of Japanese whiksy future because it was for Ichiro Akuta who is founder of Ichiro's malt/Chichibu distillery. He was learning whisky making process during that presious 2 months.
Whereabouts of Kawasaki distillery coffey column still
Kawasaki distillery stopped distillation and coffey column still was moved to Yashiro in 1987.
Yashiro was oroginally founded by Showa Shuzo (It became Sanraku Shuzo) for alcohol in 1939 and still operating as Japanese traditional spirtis Shochu production site of Mercian. Yashiro has 6 pot still (5 stainless/1 copper) and 1 super alospas column still today however no caffey column still.
Coffey column still is very classic type but it can remain material original flavor in whisky. There are less than 10 coffey column stills operating in the world today and Nikka has 2 of them and promoting not only whisky but also spirits distilled by those.
There are no info about whereabouts of Kawasaki distillery coffey column still after 1987. If it remainx in production, it must be very highlighted.
Karuizawa club
There are Karuizawa club whisky bottle today. It is easy to misunderstand that it is whisky by Karuizawa distillery. In fact, it half correct and half increccet.
Karuizawa club is PB of local liquor shop chain "Sake no super Takagi" and it was originally produced by Karuizawa distillery. However it was not single malt but pure malt, which means blended of import bulk malt whisky with or without their own distilled malt whisky.
After Karuizawa distillery stopped production, Shinshu distillery was producing it. But it is not pure malt but blended whisky. Contents might be same with Mars 3&7 and made mainly from import bulk whisky.
2012 Gaia flow
2017 Shizuoka distillery
More than 15 new craft distilleries were founded after 2015 and most of them are established by other liquor producers.
But Gaia flow is exactlly startup company without any liquor business experience and they started from whisky import, took over some facility from Karuizawa in 2016 and started Shizuoka distillery in 2017.
They have some unique points about facility. There are 3 pot stills including one came from Karuizawa distillery and another one is very rare direct fire type. There are 8 mashtun and half of them are made from local ceder tree.
Story of Shizuoaka distillery
Facility from Karuizawa distillery
Karuizawa distillery stopped commercial distillation in 2000. Kirin merged Sanraku Ocean in 2006 and made decision in 2010 to terminate all whisky production activity including bottling and aging and sell it to local government. It took final visitor day in the end of 2015 and all buiding were completely dismantled in 2016.
But Gaia flow which was building Shizuoka distillery bided remainded facility by local government tender and brought to Shizuoka distillery. Some facilities were too damaged to be repaired but one pot still, malt mill made by Porteous and Hooper were repaired and these are working in Shizuoka distillery today.
Bottle by Shizuoka
New make
New born
