Founded in 1973 as a joint venture by Kirin Drinks and Canadian drinks conglomerate Seagram, the Fuji Gotemba Distillery has been in production for 45 years. Using their combined expertise and resources, Kirin and Seagram managed to build a facility capable of carrying out almost every step of the production process on-site within the distillery. From malting, distilling of both malt and grain whisky, to maturation and bottling, the entire process can be finished at the all-inclusive Fuji Gotemba distillery.
Even with all the capabilities and resources at Fuji Gotemba's disposal, it was only after 30 years of operation before they released their first Single Malt bottlings. In 2004 the Fuji Gotemba Single Malt 18 Year Old was released, along with its cousin the Fuji Gotemba Single Grain 15 Year Old, both bottled at 43% ABV.
The following year, Kirin came out with two new releases under the brand name of Fuji-sanroku, one of them was the NAS Blended Whisky Tarajuku 50%, with the other being the Fujisanroku Single Malt 18 Year Old, which we currently carry. The Fujisanroku 18 has a very floral, sweet and clean flavour profile. There is also some older liquids aged up to 24 years inside Fujisanroku 18's recipe.
Overall, the Fuji Gotemba Distillery remains devoted to continuously improving the quality of their products and ensuring satisfaction in their loyal customers. Kirin has also remained more focused on the domestic Japanese market, aiming to build up a firm home base before looking outwards to Western markets. We can only look forward to seeing more of Fujisanroku's excellent whiskies on our shelves in the not-too-distant future.
Fuji Sanroku
