Blog – Page 14 – Bacchus Global

Perspectives

From 27 to Over 140

In 2021, when the Japan Spirits & Liqueurs Makers Association (JSLMA) announced its voluntary standards for Japanese whisky, there were roughly 27 operating distilleries in the country. Just five years later, in 2026, that number has surpassed 140. This rapid proliferation is exceptional by global standards. Yet, this figure does not signify a mere "bubble." Rather, it signals a quiet tectonic shift unfolding across Japan, as distillers in diverse regions seek to capture the distinct character of their land and their own philosophies within casks.

Perspectives

A Sake-Brewing Craft That Turns Amber in a Snow Cellar

At the foot of sacred Mount Hakkai in Minamiuonuma, Niigata Prefecture, there is a semi-underground storage cellar packed with roughly 1,000 tons of natural snow. This is Hakkaisan Brewery’s yukimuro, or snow cellar. Without any artificial electric cooling, American white oak barrels rest silently in darkness, free from vibration, at a year-round temperature below 4°C. What lies inside them is neither whiskey nor bourbon. It is authentic rice shochu, created by a sake brewery using the techniques and byproducts of sake making. Its name is Hakkaisan Authentic Rice Shochu Oak Barrel-Aged “Fubaika.” Bottled at 40% ABV, this limited production has been quietly crafted since its debut in 2016.

Perspectives

Japan as a Wine Country

From April 15 to 17, ProWine Tokyo 2026, an international trade fair for wines and spirits, was held at Tokyo Big Sight. A total of 188 exhibitors from 23 countries and regions took part, and of the 22 seminars held during the event, seven focused directly on Japanese wine itself. The globally renowned wine critic Jancis Robinson MW appeared by video in a session titled “The Current State of Japanese Wine,” while wineries from Nagano, Yamanashi, Hokkaido, and Kumamoto took the stage as producers. In its closing summary, the organizers named “Japanese wine” as one of the three major trends of the fair. The other two were rosé wine and the rise of South America. In Tokyo in April 2026, it was quietly recorded that Japan, as a wine-producing region, had taken its place squarely on the agenda of global industry trends.

GIN

In a Distillery Room Engineered by Eiffel’s Team

Combier Meridor London Dry Gin, Infused with the Memory of the Loire In Saumur, within France’s Loire Valley, the doors of Distillerie Combier—founded in 1834—open to reveal a 19th-century distillation hall of iron and copper. This space was designed by the engineering team of Gustave Eiffel, the same mind behind the Eiffel Tower in Paris. […]

French culture, history

The wines of the Loire Valley

I – Domaine Patrick BAUDOIN The reputation – and popularity – of Loire wines is increasing day by day. Until recently, 80% of Loire production was drunk by the French, who are very attached to the region, to the Loire, its emblematic river, component of their intimate identity, and to its delicate wines. Times are […]

CRAFT BEER

The Thirty-Litre Beginning

Baird Brewing Company and Twenty-Five Years Across from Numazu Harbour In the year 2000, on a corner of Numazu harbour in Shizuoka Prefecture, directly across from the fish market, an American named Bryan Baird and his Japanese wife Sayuri stood before a brew kettle of only thirty litres, scarcely larger than a generous household pot. […]

Perspectives

The Art of Waiting

The Quiet Resurgence of Kimoto and Yamahai in 2026 Before dawn in a sake brewery, a young kurabito grips a paddle and stands over a shallow tub known as a hangiri, grinding together steamed rice, koji, and water. The “moto-suri uta,” a work song repeated like a chorus, echoes low across the freezing wooden floor. […]

LIQUEUR

A Fragrance Born Without a Still

Kanegasaki Herb Distillery’s “Waka Itsuki” Paints an Iwate Spring While working in the kitchen of a restaurant in Vancouver, he was given a simple directive by the Canadian owner: “Make cocktails using only natural ingredients.” Taking that instruction to heart, a young Japanese man went out and gathered thyme, rosemary, mint, and roses from the […]

Perspectives

The Silent Protagonist

Tracing the Essence of Water from Nada to Bangkok Roughly eighty percent of a single serving of sake is not rice, but water. The total amount of water used in a brewery is said to be about fifty times the volume that ultimately ends up in the bottle. Washing the rice, soaking it, steaming it, […]

Bar

Rice as Vermouth

How a 148-Year-Old Kuma Shochu Distillery Crafted an Aperitif Through Subtraction When, at a bar in Bangkok, a vermouth bottle is pointed to with the words, “A martini—with gin and this,” the idea that what’s inside might be not European grapes but rice from Kyushu simply did not exist for a very long time. In […]