Journey of the Mizunara: Crafting Whisky's Rare Treasure from Horonobe
Exploring the Intricate Path to Perfection: From Forest to Distillery, the Story of Mizunara Whisky Aging
Hey, I’m Casey. Welcome to our newsletter, sharing the startup journey of Kamui Whisky K.K. We’ve been busy, but when we aren’t overwhelmed, we’ll share a story as we craft up a whisky distillery on a remote, frozen, volcanic island in the most northern part of Japan.
Is there a better surprise for a Japanese whisky distiller—or any whisky distiller anywhere—than to have a Mizunara barrel show up at your door unannounced?
It happened to us this past fall.
We received a beautiful Mizunara1 barrel from our neighbor, Horonobe-cho.
It was arranged directly between mayors, ours and there’s. And it came with the most modest bill, just a token shipping cost. What I was to find out later was that the barrel is on “loan”, like a famous footballer. Technically, Horonobe-cho are still the owners2.
Thinking that we had a chance at something special, to have our own secret route to a steady supply of the rare, expensive, hard-to-source Mizunara, I went to visit them. That was only part of it though; a more simple motivation to say “Thank you” for their grand gesture in person was at the heart of our mid-winter trip.
I would learn a lot about Mizunara.
Horonobe Town
In mid-February it was -5c, but we lucked out on a beautiful, sunny day.
Horonobe is a town in our area of Northern Hokkaido, Soya, with a population smaller than Rishiri. Producing quality butter3, they are looking to branch out to other areas, to build their awareness and new economic chances. Hence Mizunara, which grows naturally in the forests.
We met with the Mayor and the leader who made this collaboration happen.
Finding Usable Mizunara
It’s at least an hour hike back into the woods, through snow, to find a possible tree. Harvesting is done before the snow melts, in the early spring, by April at the latest. Through the winter the Mizunara doesn’t drink up much water, so it is “drier” than it would be if you cut in other seasons. Plus, the snow on the ground makes transporting the logs easier, and doesn’t harm the ground, or the tree, as it would if you dragged it an hour over a rocky surface.
No Coopers
Horonobe has the foresters. Often working private land to find a possible tree that could be a special Mizunara barrel. But from that point there is no infrastructure to be able to craft a barrel.
The town had to figure out from scratch, how to make a whisky quality Mizunara barrel. There are no coopers in town, hell there are barely any in Japan. Even the step before the cooperage couldn’t be done locally.
Ariake is the one independent, established, cooperage in Japan. There are other cooperages starting to sprout, with the big players, Suntory and Venture Whisky, having their own craftsmen, but other than Ariake it’s very hard to find the skill and craftsmanship to make barrels in Japan. (Yes, there is a business opportunity here!)
Ariake quickly told the Horonobe team that, ‘Yes’, they could make a Mizunara barrel for them, but they would need someone to cut it to the right dimensions, and someone to dry it properly before Ariake could craft it into a barrel. The volume being much too small for Ariake to commercially handle all the steps.
After searching around, the town found the right company in Asahikawa, an area known for its woodworking, who would handle the drying.
To recap, the rare Mizunara tree is logged in Horonobe, then it is sent down to Asahikawa for a year of drying, then from there it is off to Ariake to shape into a barrel.
Three companies to craft one barrel.
A 5099 km Journey
Our Mizunara barrel had to travel from Horonobe (Northern Hokkaido) to Asahikawa (Central Hokkaido) to Miyazaki (Kyushu, Japan’s Southern island) and all the way back up Japan to Rishiri. A 5099 km journey.
As the crow flies, Horonobe is only 57.5 km from Rishiri.
That’s a 5,041.5 km detour for our barrel to exist and become the special whisky aging instrument it is.
An Extremely Limited Supply
Even at this point in the conversation (masterclass?) I was holding on to the hope that despite the distance, despite the unimagined steps, we were still on to a Mizunara goldmine (these things retail for a pretty penny).
At the moment, the barrel output of Horonobe’s homegrown Mizunara is a maximum 5 barrels every 2 years.
Find the tree, axe it, dry it, make it into a barrel. Then repeat. It takes time, especially, when there isn’t an industry in town to support this.
But what if somehow we could recruit in coopers? Couldn’t we ramp up the supply? There’s gotta be an entrepreneurial way through this.
Even if you build it, even if they come, it doesn’t matter
Even if you could somehow recruit the craftsmen, and convince them to live in Horonobe, to make barrels, there aren’t enough trees.
The Rarity of A Barrel-Quality Tree
A candidate Mizunara tree is usually around 100 years old. They’ll be over 20 meters in height at that age. It’ll have, possibly, enough usable wood for a barrel. Only 30% of a “good” Mizunara tree is suitable to become a barrel4.
Most Mizunara don’t make the cut. Baby Mizunara face deer and rats. They get eaten and deformed before they can grow.
The teenage Mizunara that make it past those predators get nailed with the biting, harsh wind. They get bent. They don’t have enough straight wood to create a barrel. Then there is the snow. Snow falls in precipitous amounts. That heavy snow bends the branches. Once again, becoming unusable to be a barrel.
The perfect barrel Mizunara really depends on luck to get the right spot in the sun, to avoid the predators, to miss the wind that will knock its branches away from whisky destiny.
Our Mizunara Barrel
We have 1 barrel. It will be another year, or two, before we are lucky to get our hands on another neighborly sourced one.
We have something very special planned for our Mizunara barrel. The whisky we produce here at Kamui is special and hard to buy. The whisky that we will make with this Mizunara barrel will be extremely, extremely unique. Together with our town office in Rishiricho we plan to make an announcement about this relatively soon. Watch this space for more.
Horonobe has been looking for the right partner to create something special with their beloved Mizunara. Since they started this barrel journey 5 years or so ago, they’ve partnered with top sake producers and a gin distiller.
The Gin wasn’t only aged in their rare Mizunara, but also has reindeer horn5 in the ingredients.
With us and our fiercely wind blown whisky distillery at the northernmost point in Japan, I think Horonobe has found the right partner for their hard-to-find Mizunara barrels. We won’t have reindeer horn in our mash bill, but it will age into something as beautiful and succulent as unicorn tears.
🦄
Some of the details in the article contrast with what we learned, but the spirit of it is correct.
The reasoning to keep the relationship between us open in the future, not a one time transaction, but also so their town can have their name associated with the special whisky when it is eventually released.
Buy “Hokkaido Butter”, it’s made in 2 different places, one being, the better one being, Horonobe. Look on the side of your butter package at the place of origin to purchase the best one :).
Of course the other parts of the tree are used for other products. They are not thrown away. Horonobe works to be as sustainable as possible with their precious natural research. Toys to gift to children of the town, furniture, and other things are made with the parts of the tree that are not destined to become a whisky barrel.
Reindeer are endemic to Horonobe.
A limited Mizuhara aged Kamui whiskey… damn… 🥃