Setouchi Distillery Visit, Part 1: Kure, Hiroshima — Two Brothers Chasing the Lost Aroma of Old Sherry-Cask Macallan (Hiroshima, Japan)

2026.10.05

In short: Setouchi Distillery in Kure, Hiroshima, Japan, is run by a 170-year-old sake brewery that turned to whisky after the pandemic. The older brother chases the lost aroma of 1960s–70s sherry-cask Macallan, and the distillery deliberately widens its middle cut all the way down to 40% ABV to capture heavy, complex flavours. Part 1 of my 3-part visit report by Mika Tanimoto, owner of Bar Little Happiness in Hiroshima.

A report on a passionate challenge here in Hiroshima!

This time I visited Setouchi Distillery, and I was surprised and moved by how little I knew about it, even though we are both in Hiroshima!

I will share this passionate story with you in three parts!!

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Why did a long-established brewery, now in its 170th year, start making whisky now?

Behind it lie a longing for the past and a carefully designed plan for the future.

Here is the story of two brothers in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, chasing their ideal flavour with methods that overturn common sense.

A “complete reversal” in the brewery’s 170th year

For generations, this distillery made sake.

But after the pandemic, they decided on a major change.

Sake is most valuable when freshly made, and its value falls over time.

Whisky is the complete opposite: it is worth the least when you start making it, and its value rises with the time it spends maturing.

They began this “opposite” challenge because of a long-term strategy: “to broaden the family business and look ahead to the next 100 years.”

Why it began: the older brother’s phantom of “sherry-cask whisky”

Chasing a legendary whisky

Long ago, the older brother of this distillery encountered one glass of whisky.

It had the deep, complex flavour created by sherry-cask maturation, symbolised by the Macallan of the 1960s and 1970s.

A deep aroma of nuts and dried fruit that rises the moment you pour it into a glass — a “lost glass” that changed with the times and disappeared from the market.

That powerful memory of “the greatest of the past” moved the history of the family business.

What drove him was a resolve: “If we can’t get it anymore, the only way is to recreate that flavour with our own hands.”

It is not mere nostalgia, but something close to a sense of mission: to bring an ideal flavour back to life today.

Why choose an “inefficient” method?

To achieve the “rich flavour” they aim for, they deliberately use inefficient methods in production.

One of them is how they handle the “middle cut,” the step at the end of distillation where the spirit for whisky is collected.

In whisky-making, from the liquid that comes off the still, only the good middle part fit for the product is cut out and kept.

• Typical whisky: to guarantee quality, distillers safely collect only the clean part (from about 76% down to 61% ABV).

• Setouchi Distillery: boldly “lowers” and widens the collection range, all the way down to 40% ABV.

Liquid around 40% contains many heavy compounds that are usually cut away as “off-notes.”

But they believe these are the very source of a “heavy, complex flavour.”

Even at a risk, they actively take in those compounds and let maturation turn them into something delicious.

This seemingly “inefficient” commitment is the beginning of their whisky philosophy: bringing the ideal flavour of the past back to life today.

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In Part 2, we look at the blueprint of the younger brother, who has an unusual background as an MRI researcher: “90% sherry casks,” and his vision for quality in the brewery’s 200th year!

Don’t miss it 🔔✨

Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum&Whisky.

[A note from Tanimoto] This article about Setouchi Distillery is based on my own visit, but it also includes some of my personal thoughts and interpretations. Please enjoy it as the musings of one whisky lover.