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“Hanzo” & “Yoshinogawa” In-store tasting event @ Ikebukuro


You can taste Hanzo, Ota Sake Brewery from Mie prefecture, and Yoshinogawa, Yoshinogawa co,Ltd from Niigata prefecture.

Hanzo (Ota Sake Brewery)

Currentry, there are 34 sake brewaries in Mie. The sake produced in Mie’s breweries always performs well in the Annual Japan Sake Awards and other contests, and its delicious taste is gaining increasing attention. The reasons why it tastes so delicious are Mie’s rich food culture rooted in the locality, its climate, clear spring water, and high-quality sake rice. Based on these factors, the breweries produce a variety of high-quality sake that complements well with all kinds of cuisine.

The products of Ota Sake Brewery Co., Ltd. are largely hand-made according to traditional production techniques. The brew master, or “Toji”, is the most important person in the brewing process. He controls the quality of the sake by deciding at what temperature the fermentation process takes place. He also supervises all the other workers. The most important period in the sake making process is from November to April, since the low winter temperatures benefit the sake quality.

During this time, the brew master is always present in the brewery, continuously checking the temperature of the raw sake, even during the night. Many experienced brew masters are originally from the Tohoku area of Northern Honshu.

The brew master at Ota Sake Brewery Co., Ltd., Mr. Hisamitsu Fujii, 71, comes from Iwate Prefecture, also located in Tohoku, and is a member of the “Nambu Toji” Brew Master Guild. His skills, combined with 50 years of sake making know-how at Ota Sake Brewery Co., Ltd., where management and staff is working together as a team with the determination to only produce the highest quality.

Hanzo Junmai Daiginjo was selected for G7 Ise-Shima Summit. Because of that Hanzo Junmai Daiginjo Yamadanishiki Migaki 40 (Seimaibuai 40%) was short supply.

Ota Sake Brewery Home page

Tasting at home by amazon

Hanzo Junmai Daiginjo 【Kami No Ho】大田酒造 半蔵 純米大吟醸 神の穂 ７２０ml

Exclusively made with the “Kami No Ho” variety of sake rice, especially developed over 12 years for the Mie area, which was described as “God’s country” in Japanese legends. It features a fresh, particularly smooth flavor, the way sake should taste.

Rice: Kami No Ho
Seimaibuai (The degree of polishing rice): 50%
The degree of Sake: +2
Alcohol: 15%
How to serve: Under 15℃ is good, but best is chilled at 7-10℃
Suitable for both Japanese and Western style meal

 


Yoshinogawa (Yoshinogawa co,Ltd)

Yoshinogawa is located in Settaya, Nagaoka city, Niigata. Nagaoka is famous for Fireworks. The Nagaoka Festival is held from August 1st to August 3rd around the Shinano River. Its main attractions are the portable shrine float parades and folk dance processions during the day with large-scale fireworks displays in the evening on the final two days. It is one of the three great fireworks festivals of Japan.

It is said that over 1 million spectators attend over the three days every summer. It is really a big event, you need an early reservation for transport and accommodation.



Booking.com

Settaya is a village in Niigata known for many years as a place specializing in fermentation. There are swarms of breweries such as Sake, Mirin (sweet sake; used as seasoning) and Soy sauce in the 500 square meters and you can see many wooden and old style buildings. On of the old building has existed ever since the Edo period. This quaint town still retains the atmosphere of old bygone days.

Mikuni Kaido (三国街道) was an ancient highway in Japan that stretched from Takasaki-juku (present day Gunma Prefecture) on the Nakasendo to Teradomari-juku (present day Niigata Prefecture) on the Hokuriku Kaido. Settaya area was along the Mikuni Kaido and convenient location in Edo period. Moreover, there were abundance of high quality underground water from Ota river and Shinano river also produced rice and soybeans. Therefore sake, miso and soy sauce brewing industries developed in this area.

Yoshinogawa is founded in 1548. It is the oldest brewery in Niigata where the one of Japan’s leading sake producing areas. They have 470 years brewing history.

Yoshinogawa co,Ltd Home page

Tasting at home by amazon

Ginjo Gokujo Yoshinogawa 吟醸 極上吉乃川 ７２０ml

 

 

DATE AND TIME

2018/11/08 (Thu)～2018/11/14 (Wed) 10:00～20:00

You cannot go? Check out ichibansake Event Calendar

LOCATION

Ikebukuro Tobu Department Store B1F

1 Chome-1-25 Nishiikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo 171-0021

Google map

Access

Directly connected to “Ikebukuro station”

Web site

For more information visit, 東武百貨店 池袋店 日本酒催事スケジュール

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“Rumiko no Sake” & “Izumibashi” In-store tasting event @ Ikebukuro


You can taste Rumiko no Sake, Moriki shuzojo from Mie prefecture, and Izumibashi , Izumibashi sake brewery from Kanagawa prefecture.

Rumiko no Sake (Moriki shuzojo)

Known since ancient times as the land of the ninja, Iga is also the town that is home to Moriki Shuzojo in the prefecture of Mie. Located in central Japan, Mie faces the Pacific and lies between the cities of Nagoya, Osaka and Kyoto.

Nearly all work in the Moriki Shuzo is done by hand, the same way their sake has been made for centuries. Rumiko’s motto is “a lot of hard work in the making of the best quality sake she can, means being honest to her customers”. It is truly a remarkable brewery with a wood fired boiler being used to steam the rice, wooden vats full of steamed rice are carried on the Moriki’s and their workers shoulders, including up wooden planks to get the rice into the fermentation tanks. About 25% of their sake production is from their own organically farmed rice, and the rest is sourced from areas that specialise in the particular rice variety that will produce the best result for the style of sake they wish to brew. The Moriki’s still use Yeast Strain #6 in their sake which is very unusual nowadays, along with allowing wild yeast to start ferment in many of their sake.

Moriki Brewery is not a large-scale brewery. “Rumiko no Sake” was born in 1992. The end of the twentieth century was the period of depression in Japanese sake and all small-scale breweries had to take up their cross. “Natsuko no Sake” is a Japanese manga that dealt with the social problem that did on the stage of sake brewing. She happened to read “Natsuko no Sake” and surprised at the accidental coincidence. Natsuko, the main role, was set at the situation very similar to Rumiko. It became a great encouragement which made them survive through.

Moriki shuzojo Home page


Izumibashi (Izumibashi sake brewery)

Izumibashi sake brewery is in Ebina city in Kanagawa prefecture. It was founded in 1857. Kanagawa is adjacent to Tokyo, and gets a lot of tourist traffic owning to its landmarks – Yokohama and Hakone.
Surrounding the brewery are rice fields. Many of those fields are cultivated by Izumibashi itself. In 1996, the brewery began growing its own rice. Now, they cultivate over 40 hectares of rice fields – a mixture of own and rented land.

Izumibashi sake brewery puts an emphasis on natural farming methods. While not going 100% organic, Izumibashi grows rice with minimal use of agrochemicals. Using natural methods to increase vitality and strength of plants, it grows rice that is naturally pest-resistant. Izumibashi has been able to reduce the use of agrichemicals by 96-100% of the existing prefecture standard.

The brewery also works with the local Sake Rice Association to re-cultivate unused land and promote natural farming methods. As a result, all farmers they work with have reduced the use of agrichemicals to 60% of allowable level.

The red dragonfly, the symbol of Izumibashi, likes rice fields. Izumibashi believes that it has seen the increase in dragonfly numbers – a result of using less chemicals. A nice sort of symmetry in that, don’t you think?

Izumibashi sake brewers also mill the rice they use in their sake. While a few brewers do that, the majority outsource this task. Izumibashi’s staff assess the quality of rice that comes to the brewery, which can differ by strain, origin and even the weather of each summer, and polish the rice according to their findings. From growing to polishing, rice gets a lot of attention at Izumibashi!

Izumibashi only brews junmai sake, which means the brewers do not add any distilled alcohol to sake at any stage. While addition of a small amount of alcohol at the end of the brewing process is a valid technical step in sake brewing (it helps draw out alcohol-soluble flavours), a small number of breweries believe that it can be avoided with enough effort and skill.

Izumibashi sake brewery Home page

DATE AND TIME

2018/5/3 (Thu) -9 (Wed) 10:00～20:00

You cannot go? Check out ichibansake Event Calendar

LOCATION

Ikebukuro Tobu Department Store B1F

1 Chome-1-25 Nishiikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo 171-0021

Google map

Access

Directly connected to “Ikebukuro station”

Web site

For more information visit, 東武百貨店 池袋店 日本酒催事スケジュール

Posted on

“Hanzo” In-store tasting event @ Ikebukuro

You can taste Hanzo, Ota Sake Brewery from Mie prefecture.

Line up

  • Junmai daiginjo Hanzo nakagumi nama genshu
  • Junmai daiginjo Hanzo Kaminoho nama gensyu
  • Tokubetsu junmai nama genshu Hanzo Kaminoho

-Nakagumi, the mid-cut, is the second pressing of a batch of sake.

-Nama is unpasteurized, Genshu is undiluted cask strength.

Ota Sake Brewery

The products of Ota Sake Brewery Co., Ltd. are largely hand-made according to traditional production techniques. The brew master, or “Toji”, is the most important person in the brewing process. He controls the quality of the sake by deciding at what temperature the fermentation process takes place. He also supervises all the other workers. The most important period in the sake making process is from November to April, since the low winter temperatures benefit the sake quality.

During this time, the brew master is always present in the brewery, continuously checking the temperature of the raw sake, even during the night. Many experienced brew masters are originally from the Tohoku area of Northern Honshu.

The brew master at Ota Sake Brewery Co., Ltd., Mr. Hisamitsu Fujii, 71, comes from Iwate Prefecture, also located in Tohoku, and is a member of the “Nambu Toji” Brew Master Guild. His skills, combined with 50 years of sake making know-how at Ota Sake Brewery Co., Ltd., where management and staff is working together as a team with the determination to only produce the highest quality.

Hanzo Junmai Daiginjo 【Kami No Ho】

Exclusively made with the “Kami No Ho” variety of sake rice, especially developed over 12 years for the Mie area, which was described as “God’s country” in Japanese legends. It features a fresh, particularly smooth flavor, the way sake should taste.

Rice: Kami No Ho
Seimaibuai (The degree of polishing rice): 50%
The degree of Sake: +2
Alcohol: 15%
How to serve: Under 15℃ is good, but best is chilled at 7-10℃
Suitable for both Japanese and Western style meal

Hanzo Junmai Daiginjo was selected for G7 Ise-Shima Summit ,May 26 Working Dinner. Because of that Hanzo Junmai Daiginjo 【Kami No Ho】is short supply now, it will re-sell May or June, 2018.

DATE AND TIME

2018/4/5 (Thu) -11(Wed) 10:00～20:00

LOCATION

Ikebukuro Tobu Department Store B1F

1 Chome-1-25 Nishiikebukuro, Toshima, Tokyo 171-0021

Google map

Access

Directly connected to “Ikebukuro station”

Web site

For more information visit, 大田酒造