On Sunday April 14, my boyfriend and I went to visit the Nikka whisky distillery in Yoichi, where Nikka was founded. It’s one of the big hallmarks of Yoichi, just a bit away from Otaru, and probably one of the bigger tourist destinations in the area. My boyfriend is a whisky fan, so I wanted to take him before he leaves at the end of June. We finally got around to doing it!
The basic tour itself is free (there are other limited tours and paid tours), but you do have to reserve online in advance, otherwise they won’t even let you in. Surprisingly, the tours were pretty fully booked, but we snagged a good spot in the afternoon. Since Yoichi is only an hour bus away, we didn’t need to leave that early either, and rode the 10:30 bus.
I put an emphasis on your have to have a reservation, because they don’t take walk-ins, You can’t go shop at the gift shop, look at the museum, or eat at the restaurant unless you have a tour scheduled for the day. The guards made sure we had a reservation time before ushering us to the reception desk to check-in and claim a card that had our tour time on it. We were to report back 5-10 minutes before our tour to exchange it for the free tasting vouchers. Originally our tour was at 2, but the lady very kindly offered to bump us to 12, 2, or 1:30. As I wanted to eat at the restaurant first, and to account for potential wait time, we accepted the 1:30 one.
Fortunately, the restaurant was fairly empty when we arrived, but still aquire a line once we sat down. We ordered the 1/2 roasted chicken, which is supposedly Rita’s (the Scottish wife of the guy who founded the company) own recipe, the spare ribs from the Hokkaido menu, the sausage assortment from the appetizers, and I got a peach soda, and my boyfriend the peach highball from the seasonal drinks.
The peach soda, although made from the syrup of two types of peaches, was surprisingly not overwhelmingly sweet or syrupy or artificial. The sausages came in 4 flavors, plain, basil, milk, and garlic, and they were all pretty good and meaty. My favorite has to be the ribs, which had just a bit sweetness and savoriness, but without any overpowering flavor and were super tender and fall apart. The chicken was not bad, had some spices on it, with a side of some kind of delicious stewed mush and some salad. I also got a free serving of soft serve since I answered their survey, and that was super creamy, milky, and a great little treat after lunch.
With some time left, we checked out the shop and museum ahead of time, and my boyfriend planned what he wanted to try at the paid tasting bar and what he wanted to get from the shop later.
We briefly laft the premises to check out the Space Apple souvenir shop around the corner, and unfortunately the space musum next door was closed, and to be open in a week. It was open the last time I came, but oh well…
Our tour commenced at 1:30, and we traded in our entrance tickets for tasting tickets. They have separate alcohol and soft drink ones for those who don’t drink alcohol, and also offered an audio guide. However, in order to use the audio guide, you had to download an app first, and we couldn’t be bothered to do that, so we just did our best. Most exhibitions had English labels though, so everything was pretty understandable.
We started by watching a brief video in the theater in the visitor center, and slowly made our way to the back of the premises, ironically, to the back where the restaurant and shop were. The tour wasn’t too long, and even though I don’t drink, it was pretty interesting to hear about the process. The tour ended at the free tasting area, which consisted of three straight glasses of apple wine, super Nikka, and Single Malt Yoichi, with ice, water, and carbonated water to customize to your preference. For soft drinks, it was unlimited refills, with choices from Calpis water, apple juice (it wasn’t even Yoichi apple juice, which was dissappointing), and tea. There was even a vending machine in the back where you can buy snacks to go along with the drinks.
After we were done, we headed back over to the paid testing bar, where my boyfriend picked out the Yoichi exclusive set to try out. We popped into the Old Residence of Taketsuru and the Former office, before making it just in time for the 3:45 bus home.
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