Welcome to Issue#123 of SIN.
The beginning of November means the new season shiboritate are already hitting the fridges. Brewers are finding their feet, testing the water and getting a feel for how the season is going to go. But we can save you the suspense; the sake will be great. Seemingly every year there is concern about the quality of rice, especially in the past few years due to excessive heat. But the good news is that as far as how the rice will affect sake quality goes, this concern is not really ours.
There’s hardly a need to sit with bated breath to see if the brewers can make something of the harvest, because the answer is, they can. And they always do. Experience is on their side, and for all the parallels some try to draw with wine, the quality of the harvest is not one of them. A terrible year for grapes can be detrimental to a winemaker to the degree that it is not uncommon for a winery to skip certain releases (and even all releases) in a year where the grapes just aren’t good enough.
This doesn’t happen with sake. These brewers know what they’re doing. They know how to manipulate the rice, adjust their approach and adapt to the conditions.
So just relax, sit back and wait for the goods to roll in for another year.
And now for the news…
Say Goodbye To 59
Nagano- It’s the end of an era as we say goodbye to one of the sake industry’s favorite collab groups, Gokujo.
October 19 marks the official end of the collaboration which has been going since 2015 when five brewers, all born in 1984 (Showa year 59) got together and decided to each release a sake made with a selected Nagano rice milled to 59%. Each year the group would decide on a theme or motif which would help drive the marketing side of the annual release.
The group had agreed that the project would only last until they all reached the age of 40, making 2024 the final year for the Gokujo.
The brewers from Hon-Oinomatsu, Sekizen, Hokko Masamune, Ikioi Masamune, and Fukumuryō held a special event in Nagano on October 19 to say farewell and thank all of their supporters over the past ten years.
JG: I liked following this group; they are (well, ok, were…) young and serious and just needed more visibility; mission accomplished. Note, the group name, Goku-jo, is a pun: go means five and ku means nine; they were all born in Showa 59, i.e. 1984. But Goku means extreme, and jo means brew. So, “extreme brew.”
59醸 , 角口酒造店（北光正宗）, 丸世酒造 （勢正宗）, 西飯田酒造店（積善）, 東飯田酒造店（本老松）, 沓掛酒造 （福無量）
The Consumer Knows Best
Kochi- In a move that will hopefully inspire other breweries to follow similar ideas, Suigei Shuzō has developed a new sake in collaboration with sake enthusiasts in an effort to better meet consumer demands.
The collaboration began in January this year when the brewery selected 20 collaborators through the Suigei Shuzō community webpage and discussed everything from label design to flavor concept over five separate online discussions.
The key concept behind the sake was to create something which could display different flavors and aromas when consumed at varying temperatures.
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