Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
Nikka’s Miyagikyo Distillery, in the mountains of Miyagi Prefecture, was chosen by Nikka’s founder Masataka Taketsuru for a specific reason: the water. He searched Japan for the right combination of clean mountain water, forested surroundings, and a climate that would produce the kind of elegant, fruity whisky he envisioned as the complement to Yoichi’s heavier, more maritime character.
The Miyagikyo valley, where two rivers meet beside the distillery, met every criterion.
What Makes Miyagikyo Different from Yoichi
Nikka’s two distilleries produce fundamentally different whisky by design — not just because of the different stills and production parameters, but because of the environments they sit in. Yoichi, on Hokkaido’s coast, produces a heavy, peated, almost coastal spirit that shows its climate in every glass. Miyagikyo, sheltered in mountain forest, produces something lighter, more floral, and more fruited — a whisky shaped by clean air, forested surroundings, and soft water from mountain snow.
The stills at Miyagikyo are steam-heated rather than directly fired (unlike Yoichi’s famous direct-flame stills), and they are shaped to encourage a lighter spirit. The combination produces a single malt that whisky drinkers often describe as the most approachable and food-friendly in the Japanese canon.
The Bulge
One of the more unusual features of Miyagikyo’s pot stills is a pronounced bulge partway up the neck — an unusual shape that creates additional copper contact during distillation. This extra reflux — the process by which heavier vapour compounds fall back into the still rather than proceeding into the spirit — contributes to Miyagikyo’s particularly clean, delicate character. The bulge is not decorative. It is one of the reasons the whisky tastes the way it does.
Miyagikyo expressions are available at Bar Little Happiness. Read the full Japanese series: little-happiness.jp/columns/miyagikyo2022/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp