It was located at Miyota, a town on the southern slopes of an active complex volcano, Mount Asama, in Kitasaku District, Nagano Prefecture, Japan.

[4] After the distillery was mothballed in 2000 and eventually closed in 2011, this reputation hit stratospheric proportions, and original Karuizawa liquid is now among the most rare and sought-after in the whisky world.

[7] Workers from the original Karuizawa distillery have been involved in the setting up the new facility, enabling some of the brand's founding principles to be carried through to the new liquids.

[5] The “most important puzzle piece” was hiring Karuizawa’s former master distillers, Osami Uchibori and Yoshiyuki Nakazato.

Media related to Musee d'art Mercian Karuizawa at Wikimedia Commons This article is based upon a translation of the French language version as at June 2014.