Not much life on Mars

The warehouse at Shinshu

Update 14.7.2010: Kawaida san at Hombo's head office has just confirmed to me that the company is refurbishing its stills and planned to start distillation again in 2011.

Katatomo-san has an elegiac post about the Mars Whisky distillery at Shinshu. He visited in January and found that one of the two pot stills could not be used because the copper had in places got too thin and posed a safety hazard. I am not sure which of the two stills it was or of the condition of the other still but my understanding is that whisky distilling is a thing of the past. A stock of matured whisky is still being sold but is, of course, declining. Katatomo-san was told that the grain whisky used in Mars blended whiskies was imported.

The photograph and all the information in this post are taken from resort.usukeba.com.