Nine Leaves

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Founded

2013

Region

Japan

Status

Closed

Company

Takehiro Co

Production type

Pure Single Rum

Nine Leaves rum distillery was located near the southern basin of Lake Biwa in Japan's Shiga Prefecture. It was established in 2013 by Yoshiharu Takeuchi who ran it as a subsidiary of his family's auto-parts manufacturing company, Takehiro Co Ltd. Unfortunately, unforeseen commitments to the running of the parent company meant that Takeuchi eventually had to close the distillery, distilling its final spirit in 2023.

The location of the distillery was selected on account of the unusually soft water it can source from a former feldspar mine under Ishiyama mountain. Rather than use molasses or cane juice, the water was combined with jaggery (a traditional non-centrifugal cane sugar, locally known as kokuto) in order to form the base for its rum. The wash was double-distilled on a pair of pot stills built by Forsyths in Scotland, the use of which was inspired by Takeuchi's 3-day distilling apprenticeship at Ichiro Akuto's whisky distillery, Chichibu.

The Nine Leaves brand name was inspired by the Takeuchi family crest, which features a nine-leaved bamboo cane as its iconography. The distillery released its first unaged rum under the name in 2013, referring to it as Clear rather than white rum in an effort to emphasise the transparency of it production methods.

The distillery's first aged rums were released in 2014 and are marketed as the Angel's Half. These were followed by the Cabernet Sauvignon cask-aged Almost Spring, and a series of vatted rums called Encrypted which are released in numbered instalments.

Takehiro Co

2013-2023