Riding the craft whisky boom at home and abroad, a small distillery north of Tokyo is boosting production to meet a growing demand for its world-renowned and award-winning Ichiro's Malt product.
Venture Whisky Ltd. in Chichibu, Saitama Prefecture, has established itself as a pioneer in the more recent Japanese craft whisky industry, which actually has roots in commercial production dating back nearly a century.
The company got a second distillery up and running in October 2019, boosting unblended malt whisky production capacity about fivefold. A new storage area for casks used to mature the whisky, the distillery's seventh, is expected to be ready this summer.