There are still patches of snow on the ground when I arrive at the Nikka distillery in Yoichi, on Hokkaido’s west coast.

It’s mid-April and further south the rest of Japan is basking in a balmy spring: in Tokyo a couple of days ago it was T-shirt weather; travelling through Hirosaki on the way up here the cherry blossoms were in full bloom. But at Yoichi the air is crisp and cold, the sky is grey, the trees are bare.