Chichibu Distillery – Venture Whiskey

Chichibu distillery was established by Venture Whisky Ltd, the founder was Mr. Ichiro Akuto. Akuto family, which has been in existence for 21 generations, started the production of Sake in 1625. The grandfather of Mr.Ichiro Akuto was the one who transferred the main business from Sake production to Whiskey. Mr. Ichiro started to help the whiskey business in 1995 after the resignation from Suntory, though he initially hadn’t intended to inherit the family business. The company of Akuto family bankrupted in 2000, then Mr.Ichiro started up Venture Whisky Ltd.. Unprocessed whisky from Hanyu distillery was going to be discarded, however Venture Whisky Ltd made the use of the whiskey to produce the first Ichiro’s Malt. Mr. Ichiro decided to establish Chichibu distillery for protecting the whiskey which was the fruit of his family effort, and the future of Japanese craft whiskey.