At this year’s Kura Master competition which took place in Paris a while ago, two Gold Prizes were presented to our Junmai Ginjo SHOSEI as well as to our Junmai Daiginjo ICHIHOZUMI in the “Junmai Ginjo” category of the contest.
We at Hideyoshi had to grapple with plummeting sales, due to the COVID-19 crisis. The head of our brewery expresses his sincere gratitude to the master brewer and his team of kurabito who toiled away regardless, leading to the honors now bestowed upon us on the international stage.
SHOSEI uses the local rice-variety Akita-komachi, at a polishing ratio of 50%. The yeast used to create this sake is AK-1 (which stands for “Akitaryu hanakobo”, a yeast unique to the Prefecture, extracted from flowers), meaning SHOSEI is firmly rooted in its terroir.
The same can be said for ICHIHOZUMI, a recent addition to our product line. It is named after another sake-rice breed original to Akita Prefecture that was newly developed to surpass the popular Gohyakumangoku variety in its ability to yield crisp and clean (“tanrei”) sakes. Deploying Sake yeast kyokai No.1801 brings about the sake’s clean umami taste (tanrei umakuchi).
SHOSEI is currently available in China and Singapore. ICHIHOZUMI on the other hand is, at the moment, only sold in Japan. In the future, we hope to be able to bring these two delicious sakes to yet more sake-enthusiasts around the globe.