Gin Squares

FIRST JOURNEYS - 80 GINS AROUND THE WORLD - PIN 44 OF 80

KI NO BI, The Kyoto Distillery, Japan

AROUND THE WORLD, ONE BOTTLE AT A TIME,

PHILEAS FOGG WOULD SURELY APPROVE

Kyoto craftsmanship, six seasonal elements and a rather special gin that's been given the Champagne treatment.

This amazing bottle was a special treat to myself — a rather rare Edition K from the Kyoto Distillery. Only 1,800 bottles were released, so when I saw it, I grabbed a bottle pronto!

The Kyoto Distillery has several gin editions and has also collaborated with international distilleries, including Kyrö and Four Pillars. Edition K is particularly special, as Ki No Bi Kyoto Dry Gin has been aged in American oak barrels previously used at Kilchoman Distillery on Islay for single malt whisky.

The recommended serves are a smoky Negroni or a ginger highball — both sound delicious and would definitely have been my choice for an aged gin serve.

The Kyoto Distillery was founded in 2014 by David Croll, Noriko Kakuda Croll and Marcin Miller, after two years of research and experimentation. They launched their first gin, Ki No Bi Kyoto Dry Gin, in October 2016, becoming Japan's first dedicated artisanal gin distillery. David and Marcin were already well established in the spirits industry and, with the addition of Alex Davies, who had worked with Chase and Cotswolds, the team certainly made an impact on the emerging Japanese craft gin scene.

They wanted to create a gin that reflected Kyoto's history, culture and craftsmanship and became Japan's first distillery dedicated solely to gin.

They focus on using local botanicals which they group into six elements — Base, Citrus, Herbal, Spice, Tea and Fruity & Floral — and distil separately using a rice-based spirit.

Compared with other base spirits, this is expensive but also slightly sweet, clean and delicate, so it doesn't overpower the botanicals. They use different-sized stills for the different groups, with the citrus elements distilled separately from the other botanicals, and it's all about the ratios when the six distillates are brought back together.

The finished spirit is blended with filtered underground Fushimi water, famous for its use in Kyoto's sake production.

The botanicals are carefully sourced through collaborations with local Kyoto businesses, farmers and craftsmen and, because they are available at different times throughout the year, some are prepared and frozen to ensure they have a supply for distilling year round. Yuzu, for example, has to be sourced from several farms. Only juniper and orris are imported, with the other botanicals grown in Japan. It's this attention to detail and the desire to capture the changing seasons that gives Ki No Bi its name — "the beauty of the seasons."

The original distillery was extremely compact, and its tiny stills meant that production was inevitably limited. Pernod Ricard made a significant investment in the Kyoto Distillery in 2020 and, after several years of planning and construction, the new distillery in Kameoka opened in October 2025.

It's a very different operation, with four 1,000-litre German CARL stills alongside the smaller stills transferred from the original distillery. It is also fossil-free, with its boiler powered by electricity generated from renewable sources. Despite the increase in scale, the six-element production method and focus on Japanese botanicals remain at the heart of the gin.

The House of KI NO BI is the part of the story that you really need to explore. Located in the centre of Kyoto in a renovated machiya townhouse more than 100 years old, it has preserved many of the original features and combines them with handmade wooden furniture, traditional Nishijin textiles and the beautiful karakami-inspired interiors. There's a bar, shop, exhibition space, blending room and tasting seminars, so it's much more than simply a place to buy a bottle.

I actually visited The House of KI NO BI in early 2026, so this is one part of the story I can now say I've experienced rather than simply researched! It's every bit as beautiful as I'd hoped and a fabulous place to explore the philosophy behind the distillery. Naturally, I couldn't leave empty-handed and came home with Edition G.

This is another limited cask-aged expression, but rather than the smoky Islay influence of Edition K, Edition G is a collaboration with Henri Giraud Champagne, using oak barriques from France's Argonne Forest that had previously held their Champagne. The gin is aged in the casks until the fruity oak and gentle vanilla notes sit alongside the original Ki No Bi botanicals. So now I have two rather special bottles from Kyoto sitting in my collection — and still haven't opened either of them, although I did have the opportunity of tasting Edition G at House of KiNoBi while I was there!

A last mention about their chic packaging and design, which is based on the traditional gold and silver designs of karakami, used on washi paper for Japanese sliding doors. The branding was created by KIRA KARACHO, the oldest karakami atelier in Japan, established in Kyoto in 1624. The woodblock pattern used on the bottles and packaging features berries and fruit representing the botanicals used in Ki No Bi, and the bespoke bottles are made by Sakai Glass.

There is something rather lovely about the whole Ki No Bi story. It's not simply Japanese gin with a few Japanese botanicals thrown into the recipe.

The water, ingredients, craftsmanship, design, production method and even the way the botanicals are divided and distilled are all rooted in Kyoto.