Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner
We won our first medal. We're not at the top of the podium yet, but it's pretty impressive nonetheless. Our submission was Kamui Genshu from our very first month of distillation!
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.
We won our first medal!
It’s a Bronze. Barely something to write a self-congratulatory post about 🤭, but it’s our first win and the background is worth the story.
This was a win at the Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition 2023.
Our First Competition / Our First Genshu!
This was the first spirits competition we entered. No doubt we will enter many more in the coming years, but, so far we are at 100% entry to medal ratio.
The amazing thing was that this was our first batch of 神居原酒 ever! We only started distilling late in October 2022, with samples for entry due at the beginning of December. We had less than a month to get things working and come up with a taste we were reasonably satisfied to submit. The reason that it was less than a month is that Javier, our Head Distiller, wanted to ensure that the Genshu had a month sitting in the bottle, so it could have a little time to settle, and age. Which means the spirit we submitted was from our very first batches ever distilled.
At this point we were having so many problems with the machines. The boiler. The piping. It was frustration after frustration for the team. Things were getting clogged. Equipment stopped. The equipment was being put to work for the first time, and it was cranky. Each piece of the system has its own personalities, its own quirks. Ours is not an integrated system, but one that Javier designed and put together all the parts. Some of the connections were not strong yet.
There were a lot of groans within the team from all this mechanical trouble, that with everything we still had to learn about our equipment we shouldn’t be rushing to submit an entry so soon.
But we did.
We came together despite all (there were a lot!) of the problems in those early days of distilling. It was a stretch goal, but the team met it. In the end we submitted the best sample that we could have possibly done within just 1 month of the start of our distillation.
The team gained confidence from the experience.
A Bronze is the Perfect Start
There were times I would daydream that we would win a Gold or a Double Gold in our first competition. That we were just that awesome. But that wouldn’t have been the best start for us. Too much success, too early never did anyone any good. We are in this for the long haul.
Now we have goals to reach. Progress that needs to be made. We will build from this first Bronze Win.
Our Head Distiller’s Reaction
Unedited reaction from Javier, our Head Distiller:
The Judge’s Comments
With a wonderful sense of transparency the TWSC (Tokyo Whisky & Spirits Competition) shared the judges’ comments with us about our Kamui Genshu.
Here are some excerpts from the TWSC Judges’ comments 「TWSC2023 審査コメントから抜粋」1
審査員 2/
アロマ: フルーティ、リンゴ、ハーブ、ミントフレーバー: スパイシーでアロマティック。程よいボディ感でややドライ。
総合: バランス良い。余韻は長くフィニッシュはアロマティック
審査員 3/
アロマ: お花や柑橘系のみずみずしい香り。後にバニラとナッツのアイスクリム。自然なアロマオイル。
フレーバー: フルーツの味わいと、邪魔ではない麦の味わいのバランスが良い。総合: この時点でバランスがとても良いと感じるので期待したい。
This one was particularly interesting as the judge was picking up on our sea notes:
審査員 6/
アロマ: アルコールの刺激が優しく、バランス良く香る。加水してカニ味噌が出た。フレーバー: 甘味、酸味、渋味のバランス良し。加水してそのまま薄まる。
総合: 良くできた麦焼酎のハナタレとも思えた、漁港と潮を感じた。
審査員 12/
アロマ: 凛とする静謐な香り。オイリー、ミルク。
フレーバー: 線香の様な甘い香りから、その煙も彷彿とさせる。後半は心地良い苦味。総合: 品のある口当たりから甘→煙→苦の流れが楽しい。
Out of, seemingly, 12 judges we received only 2 negative comments 😅. I’ll not share those here as they weren’t very impressive comments 😶🌫️ - short, not so well-informed 🤪. Haters gonna hate, right?
Early Days
We are still in our first full-year of distillation. We’ve got some talented team members, a unique, remarkable location, and time. We will, no doubt, make some seriously sublime whisky. The team wants to make the best whisky in the world. I’m confident that day will come. Many medals, of many colours, lie in our future. Until then we will enjoy the journey. We love what we do, what we are trying to make. Steadily the world will realize that. We have time.
I’d recommend https://deepl.com to get the English translations.
Congratulations! I shall look forward to tasting and writing about your whisky one day soon I hope.
What an awesome start Casey and team! As you say, start from Bronze is best. It’s hard to loose focus when you’re front runner, and it’s a crucial time for everyone to build up hype and reputation. Upwards and onwards. Proud!