Yamatogawa Shuzo Yauemon “Moonlight” Junmai Nigorizake

Summary

A multi award-winning, 200-year-old brewery steeped in history and tradition. Makes superb, deep-flavoured sake from their own, organically farmed rice.

Sake Profile

The current President of Yamatogawa Shuzo, Yauemon Sato, inherited the will of his ancestors to make sake that perfectly complements food. ‘Every dish is a little journey,’ says Sato-san, ‘and I want my sake to be a part of that journey’. The focus for this brewery, therefore, is on deep flavoured sake that pairs excellently with food.

Brewery History & Profile

Yamatogawa Shuzo is an extremely prestigious and multiple award-winning sake brewery located in the north east of Japan. It was established in the middle of Edo period (1790) when Japan was secluded from the rest of the world and ruled by the Tokugawa Shogunate. The present owner, Mr Yaemon Sato, is from the ninth generation of his family to run the brewery. For over 200 years the traditional ways of sake brewing have been protected and evolved by the Master Brewers who inherited the spirit of sake brewing from their forbears and the local land. There are more than 100 kinds of sake produced by Yamatogawa Shuzo, we have selected five of the best to bring to the UK.

Water & Rice

Naturally filtered water from 2105m Iide Mountain – part of a mountain range that is spread out over the three prefectures of Fukushima, Yamagata, and Niigata – is used to make all the sake at Yamatogawa Shuzo. The many varieties of organic sake rice they use are all grown locally on the brewery’s own farm.

Location & Climate

The brewery is in Kitakata, a town surrounded by rich nature and in an area famous for its rice production and fabulous ramen noodles! Nearby Aizuwakamatsu is an old samurai town heavily involved in Boshin War that brought an end to the Shogun’s rule and reinstated the Emperor. Kitakata was the nearby merchants’ town selling goods to the samurai, and so has many old warehouses which are now either sake breweries or other workshops. Kitakata enjoys hot, humid summers and very cold winters (ave -4oC) with plenty of snowfall; perfect sake brewing weather!

Tasting Notes

Moonlight is superb example of a full-flavoured, sweet nigori (cloudy) sake from Yamatogawa Shuzo. Nigorizake is made simply by coarse-filtering fermented sake to only partially remove the rice lees from the mixture. This results in a sake with a dense mouthfeel, a heady fragrance and a delicious, rice-forward sweetness from the remaining lees. Moonlight is full-bodied and weighty on the palate with high acidity and amino acidity elegantly balanced with the sweetness of the residual rice.

In terms of how thick this nigorizake is, its thick enough to feel the rice lees in your mouth but not so thick to noticeably change the viscosity of the liquid. The rice lees are also generally larger than a lot of nigorizake so it feels more like rice grains suspended in sake rather than a thicker overall liquid (a bit like amazake if youve ever tried that).

The rice used is home-grown, Fukushima rice Yume no Kaori (Geek note: Yume no Kaoris large shimpaku and low protein content means the residual rice will be sweeter).

Moonlight is best served chilled and its thick & silky texture pairs wonderfully with spicy foods (try curry!).

Drink with spicy foods like Indian curry, tagine, smoked lamb chops, tandoori.