Yuza Distillery – Kinryu

Yuza Distillery is the only whiskey distillery in Yamagata. Its history is deeply related to business. Yamagata shochu maker has shifted focusing to whiskey business due to face the harsh reality of Japan’s demographics and avoid crisis. Kinryu is the only company in Yamagata that produces shochu. They make neutral shochu so that it can be used for drinks like lemon sour. It is said that the population of Yamagata will decrease by 30% until 2045. The 95% of Kinryu’s sales are in Yamagata, so affected is inevitable. Over the past 20 years, Kinryu has aimed to diversify into apartment management, nursing homes, wind power, and M&A. Venture whiskey Ichiro’s Malt won the Japanese Whiskey of the Year award, so Kinryu aim to create whiskey that rivals the world’s best whiskeys. In 2022, their first single malt “YUZA First edition 2022” released and it won GOLD at the International Spirits Challenge (ISC) 2022 Tasting Awards.