Only distillery in Hokuriku region, The Wakatsuru Saburomaru distillery has had a turbulent history marked by many notable events. Like many of its fellow distilleries, it was born in a brewery. The Wakatsuru Shuzo brewery was founded in 1862 in Toyama prefecture, a region with a wildly varied topography. Some of its mountains, such as the Hida Mountains, rise to 10,000 feet, while some of its bodies of water plunge to depths of 3,000 feet.

The Shō-gawa River flows in the west of the prefecture, deep in the Tonami plain. The quality of this water made the distillery’s sakes famous during the 1927 economic crisis. Kotaro Inagaki, the president of the brewery at the time, understood that he needed to produce higher quality sakes at an affordable price to get through the recession. Thanks to the river’s subterranean waters, he met his goal and brought success to the brewery. That success came to an end when History intervened again. The beginning of World War II brought sake production to a halt as the use of rice was highly regulated. Kotaro Inagaki had to reinvent himself once again to survive.

He surrounded himself with several specialists to find new raw materials to leverage and new techniques to innovate. He crossed paths with Shigetoshi Fukasawa, who had returned to Japan after an extended stay in Manchuria. His name may not be familiar to you, but you are probably familiar with his work. Shigetoshi Fukasawa was a key contributor to the success of Kikkoman soy sauce as he perfected the brand’s fermentation techniques. Kotaro Inagaki sensed that this may be an avenue to explore, so in 1947 he founded Wakatsuru Hakko Kenkyujo, a laboratory dedicated to fermentation research. The work picked up pace, culminating with a license to produce shochu in 1949, followed by licenses for liqueurs in 1950 and whisky in 1952.

But it was predestined that the paths of these driven men would be riddled with pitfalls! Not long after the release of their first malted experiments, a devastating fire broke out at the distillery, burning down everything. Despite the quick rebuilding of the infrastructure in just six months, the passion and will to continue took time to grow back. It was not until 2016 that a real desire was awakened to recapture the glory of the good old days. This momentum was encouraged by several investors, so the site was restored, and enthusiasts were able to visit the sole representative of artisanal Toyama whisky.