Nikka Whisky Yoichi Distillery

I love Nikka whisky and I achieved one of my bucket list. Educational and tasting was very special. You can taste whisky you only get in Yoichi distillery. I loved their tour but you need to make an appointment. Highly recommend.

Manage to get a booking to enter the distillery tour in advance. Advance reservation required. It was free. It was a great experience and seeing the history and process of whisky making. The free tasting was such a treat. I wouldn’t come again though because I think it’s good enough to come once and experience it all also because it’s much further out from the city.

The tasting bar was the highlight. Just come here and taste it. Not an alcoholic, it’s a museum after all. The whiskeys are amazingly tasty and amazingly cheap.

Reservations required, usually one month in advance. But worth it if you're a whisky lover. Distillery was beautiful in the winter snow. Free tasting of apple wine, super Nikka, Yoichi single malt. Paid tasting for some never to be seen elsewhere whisky such as Yoichi Single Cask 10 years. Museum was very informative too.

Amazing whiskies! Some of my fav and the sole reason I got into fine whisky! It was a bottle of 21 year old Nikka Taketsuri that really opened my mind and changed my taste buds from Johny Walker Black to single malts! Since then I’ve embarked on a deep and expensive journey of enjoying fine whisky from the around the world!

We went there without knowing that we needed to get tickets for guided tour in advance. Thank God the counter lady managed to slot us in. The whiskey tasting is the main highlight of the day!

The distillery is very conveniently located just across the Yoichi railway station. However trains are not very regular, so it takes some planning to match the train arrivals with the time of the tour. The tour is free, though reservations must be made in advance on their official website. There are many time slots each day to choose from, but it gets filled up fast, so if you have decided a date to visit, be sure to make the reservation 4 weeks earlier (as they accept reservations up to 4 weeks in advance). The tour is in Japanese, but instructions will be provided for downloading the "MyGuide" app and connecting to the pre-recorded audio guide. The grounds are beautiful, and at the end of the tour you get to sample 3 drinks (Apple Wine, Super Nikka, and Single-malt Yoichi) for free. If you are into collecting stamps, then there are supposedly 4 locations with stamps of different colors that will complete the "Thank you for coming!" picture. Unfortunately we only realized this when we were leaving, so could not get the other colors stamped on the card. Highly recommended.

Great tour, but best part about is the use of their lockers for free if you are part of the tour. Simply retain your tasting ticket and you can enter back and forth! Meanwhile, JR station lockers start from 400 yen so you really save quite a bit.

As for the tour, lovely residence and heartwarming story and belly warming whiskey. :) there’s nothing not to like about this place

A must visit place in yochi! Free Tour with whiskey tasting. Pay and test all their whiskey, u will taste the difference between the bottle 👍

It’s been years since I wanted to come here and I finally made it.

Highly recommend it to any whisky / Nikka lovers.

I arrived in Yoichi at 8:30am but my tour was only at 10am. They allowed me to cruise around the distillery grounds, Museum, tasting bar and gift shop.

Tour start at 10am and it was brilliant. You’ll have to see if for yourself when you come.

Staff were super helpful and friendly. Perfect side day trip if you’re staying in Sapporo.

A few days ago I went also to Nikka Miyagikyo distillery in Sendai. They’re both wonderful. There were a bit less option of tasting premium whiskys here at Yoichi, also the gift shop had less options of bottles. I guess because Yoichi is busier.

Overall, amazing! Worth coming all the way up here and taste the best whiskys and learn a bit of these masterpieces!

This is a very interesting place to visit, I believe that you don’t have to be a whisky drinker to appreciate the history behind this fascinating company, I’ve often seen the logo and the neon sign in Sapporo but never gave any thought about the product. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get on the 70-minute tour as it was fully booked but I strolled through the museum to see the different whiskies that have been produced over time, this company actually started out as a fruit juice company while waiting for the whisky to mature, after the museum stroll I couldn’t resist spending some time and money in the souvenir shop where I bought a single malt for 68,000yen which I believe is quite reasonable. This is a must visit destination but book early to avoid the disappointment of missing out on the tour.

took the whisky guided tour (70min, free drinks, advance reservation required) and was definitely worth it. beautiful place, lots of things to learn and see especially if you are Japanese whisky lover. highly recommended. Thank you Takahashi-san!

A must visit, but please reserve in advance thru their website 🙂 Though tour is in Japanese, they have audio guides and English boards.🥰u
✅ accessible thru bus and train.
✅ recommended in the morning before going to other Otaru spots

Touching story about the founder and his wife.
A pioneer in whisky making. The museum story is well curated.
It was a waste that I didn’t make a reservation on their English language site for the whisky production tour as it is out of bounds for non reserves

We couldn't get to the distillery because its reservation only but luckily we can go to the museum. The museum is free but if you want to do the whisky tasting you need to pay. The whisky tasting price is very reasonable and there are many variety of whisky you can taste. You can even try the rare whisky that they didn't sell in the masket anymore

The tour is speechless — it’s thorough, time-efficient, well-organized, and takes you to a really close look of the whisky making process. And it’s for free? I’ve lost my words. The whole place, aside from and on top of the tour experience, is simply inspiring and extraordinary. So much worth of your two-way train ride from Otaru even just for this distillery tour itself.

Tours free
Need to book 2 days before
Free tasting
Not a whisky drinker - I was impressed with tour and whisky taste

This distillery brought back bittersweet memories of my first trip here back in 2016. A guided tour is available but needs to pre-book way ahead. While I took JR from Sapporo to Yoichi 7 years ago, this time I drove a rental car all the way here.

Without guided tour, we just walked around admiring the powdery view of the distillates covered in snow; then I went to their tasting room while the kids played with snow outside. They had changed a lot since my last visit and it’s more elegant and bigger space displaying the whiskies and history of the distillery. I paid for whisky tasting flight before buying the distillery exclusive whisky from the retail shop.

Worth a visit even if you don’t plan ahead and pre-book the distillery tour. There is a free exhibition and a tasting hall where you can choose which whiskies to taste after you have learnt something about Nikka’s history. Lots of attractive old buildings from the original distillery built in 1934. Self-guided tours were still suspended when we went in September 2023 - check out their website to see if available at a later date

Really cool (and free!) tour and tasting experience. You have to make a reservation either online (Japanese site only) or by phone call. The reservations seem to fill up fast on weekends so book early if you're visiting on a weekend. At the end of the tour, you get to taste three different Nikka whiskies. You're provided with freshly cut clear ice cubes, room temperature water, and carbonated water to mix up your drink however you want.

To get to Yoichi from Otaru, you have to take the JR rail or bus, which only come at limited times. The distillery is a short walk from the station.