A vanished distillery. A single surviving cask.
Shirakawa 1958 isn’t just Japan’s oldest single malt—it is a time capsule of an era lost to history. Distilled over six decades ago and bottled for the first time in 2022, it emerges like a whispered memory from the shadows of Japan’s whisky dawn.
Prologue: A Forgotten Beginning
In the early 1950s, as Japan rebuilt itself after war and scarcity, whisky-making was still in its infancy. The Shirakawa Distillery, located in Fukushima and operated by Daikoku Budoshu (later acquired by Takara Shuzo), was one of the few that dared to venture into single malt production—decades before it became fashionable.
Though most of its output was destined for blending, in 1958, a quiet anomaly occurred: a batch of pure single malt was distilled and casked, likely intended for experimentation or future bottling. But Shirakawa would never get that chance.
In 2003, the distillery was shuttered, demolished, and buried in silence. The casks, it seemed, had vanished too.
Scene 1: The Cask That Waited
In 2019, as if unearthed from the fog of memory, a lone cask labeled “1958” was discovered in Takara Shuzo’s inventory—undocumented and untouched. Realizing its significance, the company entrusted Tomatin Distillery’s team (Takara’s Scottish subsidiary) with its evaluation and bottling.
No label existed. No record of maturation.
Yet inside that cask: liquid gold, lightly peated, distilled in Japan before most of the world even knew Japan made whisky.
Scene 2: A Taste of Lost Time
Shirakawa 1958 is unfiltered, undiluted, and non-colored—a rare snapshot of postwar Japanese craftsmanship. It’s not bold like modern malts—it’s graceful, antique, and fragile, like faded ink on rice paper.
Nose: Waxed apples, green tea, cedar, old books
Palate: Silky orchard fruit, sandalwood, dried apricot, light smoke
Finish: Gentle, herbal, lingering with aged oak and incense
Only 1,500 bottles were produced—each an echo of the past.
Scene 3: Revered Not for Fame, but for Memory
Unlike cult whiskies chasing peat or prestige, Shirakawa 1958 is celebrated for what it survived. It represents an era when Japanese whisky was raw, experimental, and quietly determined.
Collectors and historians treasure it not for marketing, but for mythology—a ghost of a distillery no longer standing, with a spirit still speaking.
Final Scene: A Legacy in a Lost Language
There will never be another Shirakawa release. This is it—the only official single malt ever bottled from this distillery. It is both beginning and end. The bottle holds not just whisky, but proof that Japan’s whisky roots run deeper than we ever imagined.
It is not for everyday drinking.
It is for remembrance.
🥃 What You Taste in Shirakawa 1958
- Delicate peat and sandalwood from a forgotten method
- Unfiltered purity that preserves its 65-year-old soul
- Japanese elegance from a time before the whisky boom
- A finish that fades like a dream remembered at dawn