On the west coast of Hokkaidō, the Shakotan Peninsula has stunning crystal-clear waters and reefs, offering a breathtaking view of the Sea of Japan. On this peninsula, visitors can also find Shakotan Spirit, a craft gin distillery! Shakotan Spirit not only produces distilled liquor inspired by the sea but also serves as a way to give courage and hope to its community and beyond. Arigato Travel has had the great pleasure of interviewing Shion Bechtol, the manager of Shakotan Spirit, to delve into the heart of this distillery. Join us as we explore the story behind Shakotan Gin and uncover the passion and dedication that goes into crafting each bottle!
Hello! Can you please introduce yourself?
I’m Shion Bechtol from Japan. I used to work as a beauty advisor in Obihiro before moving to Shakotan. My husband already lived in Shakotan and, since we wanted to live together, I started looking for a job in the area. I ultimately ended up getting an offer from Shakotan Spirit. Fortunately, I liked their drinks and the botanicals, and I also have experience working with farmers, so I was more than happy to start working here. Now, after working for the company for 4 seasons, I’ve happily and fortunately risen to the position of manager.
My work is to make people happy. It doesn’t matter whether employees or customers, I make every person happy by using our Gin and our botanicals, which I also grow myself. When I work, I make a habit of keeping in mind to “smile” and be “happy”. Because I think if I’m not happy when I work, I can’t make people happy and I can’t produce good products. Sometimes it isn’t easy to keep doing that, but I love what I do for a living now. I’m so happy to work here, and I’ll do my best every single day!
Scenery of Shakotan Peninsula – Photo Credit: Shakotan Spirit
Can you tell us about the origins of Shakotan Spirit, and how the idea of creating a gin distillery on the Shakotan Peninsula came to be?
The Shakotan peninsula’s vegetation is similar to Scotland’s. The mountains and the ocean are close to each other, and many botanicals grow in a small area, making it a unique location and the perfect spot for a distillery. There are a lot of botanicals used in the Gin created in Shakotan. In fact, the abundance of “Chinese juniper” was one of the deciding factors in opening the distillery here. This is the most important reason why we started to distill Gin here.
“Chinese Juniper” is a kind of Juniper berry, so we thought we could create a Gin made by using only the botanicals found within Japan instead of importing them. This results in Gin that is not only distilled but also completely made in Japan from start to finish. Today, however, we only use the Chinese Juniper in our UMI Gin, as it isn’t easy to pick them as they only grow right next to cliffs, not to mention they’re really rare. So we hope the Chinese Juniper we have started to grow in our garden will bear a lot of berries that we can use in the future. Shakotan Spirit’s concept mentions “extracting the vitality of plants by ‘fire.’”
Could you explain what this process looks like and how it impacts the taste of the gin?
Shakotan is associated with fire. In fact, there is a traditional and famous fire festival here. Gin is a kind of “burning alcohol” and “burning spirit”, and in Japanese, fire is known as “Hi.” Thus we use fire to distill Gin here. In particular, we use two stills. The first is made of copper and comes from Germany. This is the traditional type and how we distill Shakotan Dry Gin. The second is the vacuum type still, which we use for our drinks made from botanicals. It functions at a lower temperature than copper, which prevents overheating of the botanicals, allowing us to distill our fresh botanical spirits. Then we blend the Shakotan Dry Gin together with some of the botanical spirits to make one bottle of our amazing Gin, such as KIBOU. Thus if you drink KIBOU, you will feel like you’ve taken a “walk in the forest.”
The second part of our process is represented by the sail of the ship, which we call “Ho” in Japanese. And so the “Hi” spirit sails on the sea of Shakotan. This is our company logo concept, “Extracting the vitality of plants by fire” means “distillation”.
Botanicals on Shakotan Peninsula – Photo Credit: Shakotan Spirit
Shakotan Spirit’s botanical collection has a vast number of plants that are unique to the Peninsula. Could you talk about a few of the plants and how they inspire gin flavors?
I want to tell you about the “Sakhalin Spruce”, “Yezo Japanese Rose” and “Japanese Magnolia”. First, “Sakhalin Spruce” is a representative tree of Hokkaido. The indigenous Ainu called it “the goddess in the forest” when they saw it in the winter, due to the leaves not falling off in winter like other trees. We use only sprouts from this tree as ingredients, and it smells like strawberry and/or orange. We pick these sprouts for a few weeks in June and use them in KIBOU, which leads to the drink’s fruity taste.
“Yezo Japanese Rose” is also a representative flower of Hokkaido. We pick only the petals and use them in our “HAMANASU” Gin liqueur. The Yezo Japanese Rose has an elegant smell. It is said that if women drink it, they become completely relaxed and it is also said to balance hormones. And it’s really good taste on vanilla ice cream.
Last is the “Japanese Magnolia,” which, interestingly enough, smells like coke. The Indigenous Ainu called it the “Shikerepe,” meaning “good aroma tree”. We use them in KIBOU Gin when we change it to smell like Japanese dashi. It also helps increase the nutritional effects of other botanicals.
Inside Look at Distillery Shakotan Blue – Photo Credit: Shakotan Spirit
You recently released a new product — KIBOU seabed aging, and it has already sold out! What influenced the taste and story of this gin?
As you might have already guessed KIBOU Gin is made in Shakotan and uses the local botannicals. We wanted to do a Shakotan Mountain and Shakotan Sea collaboration, so KIBOU Gin is the bottled blessing of nature which is then aged in the Shakotan Sea. We think this results in the best of the local nature and sea mixed together in one bottle. This is an absolutely great combo for taste and story. Our bottles spend 400 days under the sea, and the Shakotan Sea makes a lot of waves, both big and small. I am sure if you drink this bottle, it will not only have a smooth taste but is also a little sweeter than normal KIBOU.
There is a chance to be a SHAKOTAN Kaimori Member! Could you explain the individual member benefits included in this membership? Is this membership available to those outside of Japan?
Our Umimori membership is so everyone can join us! If you don’t live in Japan, you can still join us. But as of now, our Umimori website is only available in Japanese. If you join us, then we will give you a 100ml bottle of “KIBOU” Gin, but we are unfortunately only able to send it to those in Japan. So when you come to see us at “Distillery Blue,” we can give you your bottle. Other member benefits are that you can use the Umimori studio and that you are privy to special coupons we organize three times a year. Also, you will be able to know our event and new product information earlier than anybody! Finally, we have a company-type membership available for businesses. I truly hope that you’ll check out our Umimori website and consider signing up!
Spirits of Shakotan Spirit – Photo Credit: Shakotan Spirit
At Arigato Travel, we’re always on the lookout for exciting food pairings! Could you share some of your favorite foods to pair with Japanese gin and craft gin?
We believe that food uses many spices and Gin is always a good combo for all of them! In Japan, curry and rice are the best foods to pair with Gin. Another particular drink I would like to suggest is the Gin “Bouquet”. This is a really good combo with sweets. And whilst chocolate and cookies are great options, I like to enjoy a slice of cake with this gin the most. The Bouquet has a floral taste making it similar to a Sabalan. Also, you can enjoy it with any tea, just add one teaspoon to your favorite tea, giving it a gorgeous smell and increasing the relaxation of the beverage. Gin liquor “HAMANASU” has an elegant rose smell and tastes sweet, making it really good with ice cream!
I mentioned earlier about a special combo in Japan. Our Gin “Umi” tastes a little salty, provoking thoughts of the Shakotan sea. So I recommend you try it with Sashimi (raw fish). This is really good and you can try it only in Hokkaido, Japan. Last is KIBOU, which I highly recommend you drink in the forest, at a camp with your friends whilst sitting around the campfire. You will feel like a part of nature when you drink it outside. If you like sweetness, I hope you try this style: add a teaspoon of KIBOU to a cup of coco. It tastes just like chocolate mint. I hope you get a chance to try all of these pairs I have suggested and create the best memories of your life with our dinks.
Distillery Shakotan Blue – Photo Credit: Shakotan Spirit
Are there any exciting plans or projects on the horizon for Shakotan Spirit as you look to the future? Is there anything else you would like to share with our readers?
We already started one of our plans: the “Farmers High” and the “Distillers Cut” series. Both series use interesting botanicals that our employees have been looking forward to using in our drinks. This time the Farmers High is a “Japanese big leaf magnolia”. We use only their flowers, which bloom for 3 days and also have a strong scent at the time of blooming. These points make it one of the most difficult to pick botanicals. The Distillers Cut uses Japanese white birch sap. First, we distill them, then add sap before the final distilling. I just want to tell you how much we stick to distilling and blending our Gin! We are constantly trying to distill botanicals that no one else uses, which we plan to continue long into the future. We hope you’ll be looking forward to all of our current and future creations. And if you come to Japan, please visit us!
Thank you so much for taking the time to be interviewed! We truly appreciated learning all about the Shakotan Spirit!
Shakotan Spirit: https://shakotan-spirit.co.jp/
Distillery Shakotan Blue: https://shakotan-blue.jp/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/distillery_shakotan_blue
Featured Photo Credit: Shakotan Spirit
