I met my true love now because of wine, so I have a soft spot for wine.

I stayed in Japan for 21 days, visited four wineries, and introduced three sake wineries in WeChat official account's article.

the last one is very special, and it is a winery that produces whisky. At first glance, everyone will think that whisky belongs to Europe and America. Actually, Yamazaki whisky has long been famous all over the world.

We didn't know until we called Yamazaki Distillery that we had to make an appointment in official website 15 days in advance to visit the winery. We didn't have time to make an appointment, but we still wanted to take a chance.

Yamazaki Distillery is located in Yamazaki Gorge at the foot of Tianwang Mountain in the southwest suburb of Kyoto, where Japanese traditional culture is concentrated, surrounded by vast mountains and dense bamboo forests. Get off at Yamazaki Station, walk for about 1 minutes, and then cross a railway that looks like a Japanese drama.

We arrived at 13:1, and asked at the reception whether we could visit the winery as an alternate if the person who made the reservation didn't arrive on time. The staff was very polite and told us that this kind of situation is rare in general and we can only take a chance.

In the process of waiting, I had to walk around to see the external environment of Yamazaki Distillery.

Yamazaki Museum, a place to visit later

Bronze statues of Nobujiro, the founder of Yamazaki Whiskey, and Saji Keizo, the chairman of Suntory Company

The first distillation pot of Yamazaki Distillery has changed from copper color to bronze color after years of precipitation

It is very important to choose the location of the winery. Here is the intersection of Kizukawa, Guichuan and Ujigawa rivers, and the different water temperatures of the three rivers gush out endless fog all year round. The unique terrain between the sandwich and the plain and basin, as well as the warm and humid climate, form the most suitable terroir environment for whisky brewing.

Behind the shrine is Tianwang Mountain, from which the water source of Yamazaki Winery comes. The water here is filtered by bamboo forests and the whole mountain, with clear quality and not only a little sweet taste.

After a stroll back to the reception desk, we were told that two people had not signed in on time for the 13:3 group appointment, so we were very lucky to go in and visit. We really thank Dionysus for giving us such a good fate.

the ticket is 1 yen per person, and the beauty gives us each a translator with Chinese explanation.

The lobby on the first floor of the museum displays the projection propaganda film of Suntory Company and the history of its founder.

There is a wine bottle in the middle of the projection, which will change constantly according to the video content, and you can clearly hear the crisp sound of water drops falling to the bottom of the bottle.

on the other side of the exhibition hall is the history of Japanese whisky. Nobujiro Niai, the founder of Suntory Group, was born in Osaka, Japan in 1879. At that time, European and American cultures flowed into Japan in large quantities. Nobujiro Niai left school at the age of 13 and started his apprenticeship in a pharmaceutical wholesaler's shop. Because imported wines such as brandy and whisky were quite novel in Japanese society at that time, they were often sold as a kind of medicine, so Nobujiro had many opportunities to get in touch with foreign wines since he was young.

After that, Niai Nobujiro became an independent portal. He opposed the import and firmly believed that the East could brew world-class whisky, so he began to build Yamazaki Distillery in 1923. The history of Japanese whisky began.

entering the second floor of the exhibition area, the lecturer began to introduce and visit the production process and tasting. The whole process, from germination, grinding, fermentation, distillation, barrel filling and aging, will be led and explained by winery staff.

the first step: germination. After germination, barley will produce amylase, which will convert the stored starch into sugar needed for growth. At this time, it must be dried immediately to stop malt growth, otherwise the starch will be consumed.

step 2: saccharification. The germinated grain seeds are crushed, and then hot water is added and stirred into paste. In this state, amylase quickly converts starch into sugar, and the sweet juice obtained after filtration enters the next process.

step 3: fermentation. After cooling the wort, it is poured into the fermentation barrel, and yeast is added to convert the sugar into alcohol.

step 4: distillation. The boiling points of alcohol and water are different. When the fermentation broth is heated to 8℃, the alcohol will first turn into steam and concentrate in the condenser to produce the original wine. After that, secondary distillation was carried out to further purify the original wine.

step 5: aging. After the second distillation, the new wine was stored in oak barrels, and the wine and oak barrels were alcoholized, and the impurities in the original wine were slowly removed.

step 6: bottling. Either put the same batch of malt liquor from the same distillery into glass bottles and sell it as Single Malt Whisky, or mix malt liquor with other grain wines in a certain proportion to make Blended Whisky and bottle it for sale.

as soon as we entered the distillation room with the staff, we smelled the sweet fragrance of apples, which was the smell of malt mixed with water for 6 hours.

different distillers produce different flavors of wine. The wine brewed in straight barrel shape is strong and mellow in taste; The gourd shape has a refreshing taste due to convection.

Luckily, I happened to see new wine with 7% alcohol content gushing out.

come out of the distillation room and continue to visit the wine cellar.

Whisky needs to be aged in wooden barrels, and oak barrels are like human lungs. Through them, the wine in wooden barrels will be fully communicated with the outside world, and the surrounding natural environment and breath will be brought into the wine.

the wine in the barrel will evaporate by 2% every year. Scots believe that the wine in oak barrels is alive, but with the subtle and complicated evolution of time, the wine liquid disappears bit by bit. They think this is because angels can't help but taste this delicious wine, so it is called "Angel's Share".

different sizes, different materials and even different positions of wine barrels have a great influence on the taste of wine.

many people have the misconception that "the heavier the wine, the more fragrant it is", which is not the case.

The longer the original wine is stored, the better the taste. Each wine has its own peak ripening period. There are wines that can develop their individuality in just a few years, and there are also varieties that need to be matured for a long time to bloom. The colorful original wine with rich taste and the wonderful ingenuity of the bartender make Yamazaki stand out in the international whisky competition every year.

Finally, we come to the stock solution display area, where stock solutions from whisky distilleries all over the world are displayed. The amber liquid is as vivid and dazzling as gold.

This is a map of the world whisky, where several major producing areas and representative works of whisky are introduced. Scotland, Ireland, Japan, the United States and Canada in turn.

The products of Suntory in different periods are displayed here in chronological order.

here are all kinds of base wines for making loud whisky. It is said to be carefully selected from 1 million barrels of whisky.

This wall is the flavor decomposition display of Yamazaki 12, 18 and 25.

let's take a look at the most familiar and famous Yamazaki 25 and Yamazaki 35.

Yamazaki's 25th anniversary is an extremely rare and high-grade product listed to commemorate the centenary of Suntory's founding. It selects Shirley barrels aged more than 25 years in Yamazaki Distillery to mature into pure malt liquor, and carefully blends them to produce full-bodied single malt whisky. The output is extremely limited.

Yamazaki 35, a masterpiece of luxury, is limited to 2 bottles in the world, which is absolutely impossible to buy in the market.

the sky-high price on Taobao is really eye-opening.

finally, it's the happiest part. Let's start to taste Yamazaki's whisky!

the manufacturer provides 4 free tasting products.

the staff served "old ice (completely transparent)" and soda water.

There are three common ways to drink Japanese whisky:

Pure, as the name implies, with nothing added;

with ice, which is called "on the rock" in English. Don't say that for other wines with ice, only for spirits;

add ice and soda water, which is called "high ball" in English.

many people are reluctant to leave and taste their favorite products at their own expense.

since all the annoying guests are here, let's have a taste of Yamazaki 25, which is extremely expensive.

Full-bodied reddish-brown, each bite has a different feeling, tomato sauce, rosemary, dark chocolate, cocoa almond ...

It's blushing like an amber Yamazaki 25.

Guess how much Yamazaki 25 is worth with this bite?