Rokkosan Distillery Tour – What to Expect
Rokkosan Distillery in Kobe is one of very few whisky distilleries in the Kansai region, so if you’re staying in Kobe or Osaka, it might be worth checking out. There are, though, two things I should probably mention before you read on. Firstly, Rokkosan Distillery is located on top of a mountain so getting there by public transport takes a bit of effort. Even from central Kobe, you’re looking at a minimum of train, bus, cable-car, bus. And secondly, just be aware that at this point, any whisky you taste at the distillery is likely to be Scotch that has been matured in Japan, rather than whisky actually distilled on-site. Anyway, here’s some more info on the distillery, and the tours they offer:
The distillery
Rokkosan Distillery is located near the top of Mt Rokko, one of the mountains overlooking Kobe. It’s a very small distillery, and actually the first one I’ve ever visited that has just one pot still. As a result, their production capacity is limited to just 10,000 litres per year. The building itself was formerly a company retreat that fell into disuse sometime after the bubble era. Axas Holdings, a company active in a number of fields (including alcoholic beverages) decided to start a whisky distillery there, renovated the building and started distilling in 2021. Interestingly enough, the room where the casks are kept was once the building’s public bath!
Tours
The distillery runs 1-hour tours on weekends only. Tours are held only in Japanese, although I believe they have some English handouts (I didn’t get a close look at these unfortunately). Reservations can be made on their website (Japanese only), and also note that they don’t run tours in winter.
The tour starts with an explanation (in Japanese) of the distillery’s history. As with any new whisky distillery, Rokkosan faced a problem when they started – how do you make money in the first three years while you’re waiting for your whisky to mature? Some new whisky distilleries get through those first few years by producing gin, for example. But for Rokkosan, the focus is solely on whisky, so they imported whisky from Scotland to mature on site. This explains why, despite the distillery only being active for 5 years (at time of writing), they already have a 12-year-old whisky on the market!
Anyway, at Rokkosan, the pot still, mash tuns, and washbacks are all in the one room, so as we looked around we were given a fairly detailed explanation of the production process. After that, we went up to the third floor to see the casks. When I visited they had roughly 50 mizunara casks, 15 or so ex-sherry casks, a couple of bourbon casks, and interestingly, three cedar sake-barrels.
Next, we returned to the tasting area in the reception area, where four drinks were waiting for each of us. The four whiskies were all Scotch that has been matured at the distillery. I was particularly interested in one that had been matured in a cedar sake barrel – I’ve seen such cask finishes on the market before but never actually tried one. It didn’t taste much like sake, but there were some very prominent cedar notes – an interesting dram!
If you attend a tour, you also receive a little gift bag, containing a Rokkosan-branded highball glass, a 100ml whisky sample, and some stickers.
Sightseeing on Mt Rokko
If you’re going all the way to the top of Mt Rokko, it might be worth doing some sightseeing while you’re up there. There are various attractions including a music box museum and botanical gardens. You can buy a one-day bus pass at the cable-car station, and it’s probably easy to get to these and other attractions by bus. I say “probably” because, to be honest, I didn’t actually do any sightseeing! I’d planned to, but on the day I visited, the weather was pretty bad so as soon as the tour was over, I beat a hasty retreat down the mountain!
Access
From Kobe and Osaka
Take the Hankyu line to Rokko Station, then catch the #16 bus to Rokko Cable Shita and catch the cable-car from there. After that, take the bus to Kinen Hidai, and the distillery is just a short walk from there.
From Kyoto
From Kyoto, getting to the distillery might honestly be more trouble than its worth. Probably the easiest way is to catch the JR line to Osaka and Hankyu line to Umeda, and then follow the directions above.
And if going all the way up a mountain is too much trouble…
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 at a private venue 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. Anyway, check here for more details on tastings! (Please note: I don’t run distillery tours. If you want to visit a distillery, I’ve compiled a list of whisky distilleries that offer tours in Japan).