Wine · Iki, Nagasaki
Ikinokura Distillery
Barley shochu from Iki Island, where the style was born.
- Founded
- 1984
- Based in
- Iki, Nagasaki
Making it since
1984
Their story
Iki is a small island off the coast of Nagasaki, and it lays claim to being the birthplace of barley shochu. Islanders began distilling barley in the 16th century, and heavy rice taxes in the 1600s pushed farmers to grow barley as their main crop. Today only shochu made on the island may carry the name Iki Shochu, a protected origin since 1995.
The island once had 55 distilleries. As numbers dwindled, six of them joined together in May 1984 as the Iki Shochu Cooperative Association, renamed Ikinokura Distillery in 2010. It is now one of seven distilleries left on Iki.
The lineup runs from everyday bottlings like Ikikko to long-aged shochu rested in old sherry casks, plus a handful of fruit and herb liqueurs.
How it's made
Iki shochu pairs barley with rice koji, a combination that goes back to the island's home distillers. Steamed rice is cultured with koji over about 40 hours, fermented with yeast, then joined by steamed barley for a second two-week fermentation. The mash is distilled once and aged in tanks, clay jars or barrels, with some bottlings resting five years or more in Spanish sherry casks.
Why we carry them
If you are curious about shochu, this is a good place to start, from the island that made barley shochu its own. Try the cask-aged bottlings neat to see how close they come to whisky.
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