After suspending production in early 2000, the Karuizawa distillery closed its doors permanently in the spring of 2012. Built at the foot of Mount Asama, one of Japan's most active volcanoes, the distillery began distilling malt in 1956. Equipped with small, directly heated, coal-fired stills, Karuizawa produces a robust, full-bodied malt that pairs perfectly with long aging in old sherry casks from Spain (for the first fill) or Scottish distilleries, including Mortlach (for the second fill). Karuizawa malt is distilled to create the Daikoku Group's "Ocean" blends. Single malt bottles are reserved for the distillery's visitor center or for certain private customers. These examples are hand-bottled and offered in single-cask, vintage, cask-strength versions. Only the quantity of whisky needed for bottling is removed; the rest is left in the barrel to age. This is why whiskies of different versions and ages come from the same barrel. For example, cask #6177, vintage 1970, exists in two labels: one 31-year-old, Distillery Edition (2002) and the other 42-year-old, Vintage Single Cask Edition (2012). When Number One Drinks purchased the 300 barrels still available at the distillery in 2006, the name Karuizawa became legendary.