Creating whisky directly from farm to bottle is a beautiful concept, and in Iiyama’s dramatic climate it has demanded real ingenuity. Working hand-in-hand with local farmers, the Kiyokawa team engineered a unique strain of barley able to thrive amid the region’s extreme seasonal shifts, while retaining the ideal characteristics for whisky production. 

With each passing year this barley grows stronger and more abundant, its rich green colour, uniform shape and size a vivid symbol of a grain that is flourishing. Cementing Kiyokawa’s future as Japan’s farm-to-bottle distillery.

Set high in the mountains of Iiyama in Nagano Prefecture, known locally as “Japan’s Hometown”, this idyllic distillery enjoys some of Japan’s most precious and untouched scenery. It’s a landscape celebrated in songs and folklore.

Here, rich malted barley and pure mountain spring water are transformed into whisky that matures in high-quality casks through sharply defined seasons, exposed to dramatic shifts in temperature and atmospheric pressure - often even within a single day. The result is a more intense interaction with the wood, deepening both flavour and natural colour.

Kiyokawa’s whiskies are primarily matured in Oloroso and Marsala casks. Ex-oloroso lends rich dried fruit, nutty, and spicy notes, deepening colour and complexity, while ex-Marsala contributes soft sweetness, subtle dried fruits and a warm, rounded profile.

The distillery has recently expanded its maturation program with several new fills, including PX Sherry and ex–Rye Bourbon. Among the most notable are the Marsala Orange Marmalade and Oloroso Orange Marmalade casks - traditional fortified-wine barrels that are lightly conditioned with natural orange preserve.

These innovative casks reflect Kiyokawa’s ongoing exploration of distinctive maturation options, expanding the palette for both single-cask releases and bespoke bottlings.

Kiyokawa’s beautiful wooden stillhouse is home to two custom copper stills, Moritaro and Morihime. Created in Italy by master still makers Frilli, these traditional copper pot stills were purpose-built to shape the Kiyokawa house style: a balance of depth, elegance, and expressive character.

The wash still, Moritaro, with its broad cut points and long, slow distillation, draws out rich cereal oils and barley-driven texture, creating a full-bodied and layered foundation. By contrast, the spirit still, Morihime, employs narrow, precision manual cuts to preserve delicate orchard fruit and refined aromatics, lending the new-make spirit brightness and finesse.

Both stills are heated by steam reboilers and cooled using a shell and double-tube condenser system, finely tuned for the distillery’s high-altitude, low-temperature mountain environment. This cooling design enhances copper interaction and promotes clarity, purity, and long-term maturation stability.

ISO 22000 is an international standard that sets rigorous requirements for food safety management. From raw ingredient handling through to production, bottling and storage. Achieving this certification is rare among Japanese distilleries and almost unheard of in the craft whisky world, placing Kiyokawa in a category of its own.

At their mountain farm distillery, ISO 22000 underscores Kiyokawa’s commitment to precision and integrity at every stage - cultivating barley, managing fermentation, distilling and maturation. Ensuring that the same care devoted to flavour is matched by world-class standards of safety and quality.

Through dekantā, a limited number of individuals are invited to own a Kiyokawa cask, laid down under the distillery team’s supervision. 

Ownership includes:

• Full transfer of ownership of the cask in buyers’ name, recorded in the distillery’s ledger.
• All warehouse services included for a duration of eight years, casks are covered by insurance claimable in cases of heavy leaking, damage beyond repair or loss.
• Personal visits to the distillery. An opportunity to see, taste and follow the evolution of your cask over time.
• Regular samples and appraisals.
• Bottling service conducted on-site, free of charge. Owners are encouraged to visit the distillery and take part in creating their own washi paper labels.
• Option for bespoke bottling and label design available via dekantā.