Suntory Yamazaki Distillery, Shimamoto-cho

Participated in their guided tour inside the distillery. Started from introducing the method of making whisky, then moved to the outside and talked about the copper statues of Suntory founders and their oldest distillery pot. We saw the huge fermentation machines and could walk into the room with 12 (?) distillery pots. Quite an experience. Then we were guided to the secretive aging cask cellar. So many barrels with year number on them… oldest I saw was 1979. Outside of the cellar there is a pretty Japanese garden with a small pond. Birds just laid eggs there. Last part of the tour was tasting. It was a very good guided tour! The museum has many many valuable variety of yamazaki bottles.

Amazing whiskies distillery with enormous pot stills for differentiating from scotch whisky in aroma development and casks maturation variations on whiskies aging. You can taste many rare whiskies aged for 18/25/30 years in the visitors’ center. Audios guides are available to download before the tour in different languages. You must booked online for reservations before coming. Otherwise you are not allowed to enter the visitors’ cemter.

Although I could not reserve the distillery tour and tasting, I was able to make reservation for the museum tour. I really enjoyed the museum as well as being able to try flight of yamazaki whiskey at the bar. The walk from the station is not short but relaxing. If you can reserve a spot, would likely recommend having this visit as an item on your trip to Osaka or Kyoto.

Best distillery tour I’ve been to by far. The tour was very detailed and the explanation of the different whiskeys during the tasting was thorough. They also gave us samples of the mountain water they use to make the whiskey. They don’t sell full bottles of Yamazaki whiskey in the gift shop but you can buy smaller bottles (I think it was 180 mL).

The price of 1000 Yen for the tour and tasting is A STEAL! The whole experience is profound and mesmerizing. There are options for English and other languages, everyone is very professional and helpful. It should be priced 2500 yen You will not be able to taste any of the aged whiskeys as part of the tour BUT you can have a separate tasting set so long as you have a tour reservation. You can get a shot of Yamazaki 25 for only 3,700 Yen and other selections at value prices but is limited to 3 shots per person. Quite insane if you ask me You will not be able to buy the aged whiskeys at the gift shop but there are still good options out there. They should have more selections and a food pairing menu in my opinion All in all, an exceptional experience and worth the trip. Only 35min from Kyoto station