Nagahama Distillery Tour – What to Expect

Nagahama Distillery is a tiny whisky distillery (and beer brewery) located about an hour east of Kyoto. It’s well worth a visit, and they do offer tours, but I should mention that according to their website, for safety reasons they sometimes decline tour applications from “individuals for whom sufficient communication in Japanese is difficult”. I have no idea how strictly they enforce this, but in my opinion, the distillery is worth checking out even if you don’t go on a tour.

The distillery

Nagahama Distillery opened in 2016 as part of the Nagahama Roman Brewery, which has been producing craft beer since 1996. It’s a tiny operation, with beer and whisky production all taking place in one building. As soon as you enter, you can see pot stills, mash tuns, and washbacks all around you. There’s a restaurant onsite as well, serving great food and (of course) beer. The all-you-can-drink craft beer option is good value!

Nagahama produces whisky under two main brands:

• Nagahama – whisky distilled at Nagahama Distillery
• Amahagan – “world blends” comprising imported whisky, blended in Japan (“Amahagan” is “Nagahama” backwards)

The distillery has a number of bottles available for (paid) tasting. Prices are on the back of each bottle – just tell the staff what you’d like to try. When I went, they had some pretty interesting ones, including whisky matured in a coffee cask.

Tours

The distillery offers a number of tours and experiences. As mentioned earlier, just be aware that they may decline tour applications from “individuals for whom sufficient communication in Japanese is difficult”.

• Distillery tour (30 min)
• Distillery and warehouse tour (3 hours)
• Whisky blending experience (2 hours)
• Whisky distilling experience (2 days)

I hope to eventually attend all of these, but for now, here’s some information on the standard tour:

Distillery tour (30 min)

This is their standard tour, and it takes place entirely in the distillery and restaurant. If you’ve been on whisky distillery tours before, there’s probably nothing terribly new here – they give an explanation of the whisky production process and show you the equipment used. One cool thing was they had a couple of barrels that they’d filled with new make that morning, and they opened them up and let us have a sniff. After being shown the equipment and casks, we moved to the restaurant where we were able to try some whisky.

I’m sure the lineup changes, but for what it’s worth, from left to right: New Make, Nagahama Red Wine Cask, Amahagan Mizunara Cask.

I thouroughly enjoyed the tour, mostly because it gave me an excellent opportunity to use my (drunken) Japanese with the other participants. I would say, though, that if you already know how whisky is made, and if you don’t speak Japanese, there’s no pressing reason to go on this particular tour. If you just go to the distillery, you can already see all the equipment (it’s all right there in front of you when you enter), and as mentioned before, there’s a lot of whisky available to try. They also have distillery-exclusive bottles for purchase, including a handfill. So all in all, definitely worth making the trip.

Sightseeing in Nagahama

If you’re going all the way to the distillery, it’s probably worth checking out the town of Nagahama as well. It’s a nice little town by the lake, kind of quiet on weekdays, but it’s popular with Japanese tourists on weekends. There are some typical points of interest you’d find in many places in Japan, such as a castle, and lots of beautiful old houses. But there are also some somewhat niche attractions, such as the Kaiyodo Figure Museum (which sadly, I’ve yet to visit).

My favourite, however, is the Giant Vertical Kaleidoscope. The walk there, down a maze-like allyeway past crumbling pieces of furniture from long ago better days, is an adventure in itself.

Not a great photo, but you can see the general state of neglect and disrepair, which is all part of its charm!

Access

Nagahama is about 70 minutes east of Kyoto by train, but be careful: trains to/from Nagahama are infrequent, so plan accordingly.

By shinkansen (from Kyoto, Shin-Osaka, Tokyo)

Take the Shinkansen to Maibara, then change to the JR Hokuriku Main Line and get off at Nagahama Station.
* The train that runs between Maibara and Nagahama only runs about once an hour. Be sure to check the timetable in advance.

By local train (from Kyoto)

Take the JR Biwako Line Special Rapid (for Omi-Shiotsu via Maibara) and get off at Maibara (but see below)
Important: If you take the JR Biwako Line Special Rapid from Kyoto, be aware that the train splits into two at Maibara. The 4 (or so) carriages at the front go to Nagahama. The carriages at the back go somewhere completely different. There are announcements on the train about this (in Japanese and English), but the easiest way is to just make sure you’re in one of the front carriages.
* This train runs about once an hour, so make sure to check the timetable in advance.

And if you can’t be bothered going to Nagahama…

Why not join me for a Japanese whisky tasting in Kyoto? (Yes, shameless self-promotion – apologies!)

Kyoto Whisky Tasting

I run small-group Japanese whisky tastings in Kyoto – it’s a great opportunity to learn all about Japanese whisky while trying a curated selection of 5 (or 6!) Japanese single malts. (I should mention that I generally don’t serve Nagahama whisky – it’s actually a pretty difficult brand to find!). Anyway, check here for more details on tastings!