Hi everyone, looking to see if anyone has been to more than one of either Nikka and/or Suntory’s whisky distilleries. I’m trying to decide if we should visit Suntory’s Yamazaki or Hakushu distilleries and/or Nikka’s Yoichi and Miyagikyo distilleries. I think we’d be able to squeeze in at most two (ideally one of each brand), so of the four, are two clearly better than the others?
We’d be visiting in February, if weather/timing gives any of them an edge over the others.
Thanks!
3 comments
That really depends upon which regions of Japan you are visiting. If you are going to Kansai – then Yamazaki Distillery is much easier to fit in than Hakushu Distillery (which honestly does not fit in winter well with anything other than perhaps being stopover to Matsumoto). Do you go to Hokkaido to ski/snowboard or for winter festivals? Then, Yoichi distillery would be a better fit – if you don’t have such plans than Miyagikyo can be done as a day trip from Tokyo (probably with Yamadera in the morning as a bonus).
Overall, it depends on your other plans and… well, on being online when the tours go live on respective days, because tour dates book out fairly quickly.
I’ve been to all of them on one trip in February in fact, and I’d say all of them are unique enough to be worth a visit. I’d plan out the rest of the trip and determine which ones make the most sense to go to given your other priorities.
The Yamazaki distillery tasting room has all of the company’s malts FWIW so it doesn’t make sense to do both Suntory distilleries.