Spirits
Iseya Distillery
A bartender's small distillery near Lake Sagami making Japanese amaro.
- Founded
- 2021
- Founded by
- Tatsuya Motonaga
Making it since
2021
Their story
Tatsuya "Moto" Motonaga grew up in Osaka and spent years behind the bar, including at Tokyo's Bar Benfiddich and WA-SHU in Taipei. In 2021 he opened Iseya Distillery in a 100-year-old house in Kanagawa Prefecture, a short walk from Lake Sagami.
His first release, Scarlet, came out in November 2021. It is described as the first Japanese amaro to be commercially packaged and exported, and the line has grown to include cask-aged versions.
How it's made
Motonaga rents a neighboring farm and grows many of the botanicals himself without pesticides. Fresh and dried herbs, roots, barks and citrus peels are macerated in sugarcane spirit, blended, sweetened and rested in steel or oak. Each bottle is filled, labeled and wax-sealed by hand.
Why we carry them
Scarlet is a fun swap for Campari in a Negroni, with a Japanese accent from yuzu and local herbs. We like it with soda, too.
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