Manotsuru Sake Brewery
Manotsuru Sake Brewery on Sado Island, part of Niigata Japan, is easily missed if you don’t know what you’re looking for. A small warehouse with sake distillery tanks, a tasting and sales area as well as a presentation for tourists and sake aficionados at the back, it was hard to believe this tiny place produced world renowned award winning sake.
However, I was really excited to be there as this had been the sort of place I’d been wanting to see since arriving in Japan.
We were treated to a presentation video which showed the sake making process, (available online, see below) and we were also pleased to find several people eager to wait and serve tastings of a wide variety of sake, each person specialising in whichever sake category was on offer.
Ancient History documentary video from Manotsuru about their rice refining and sake brewing process on Sado Island Niigata Japan:
I tried various sake from dry to sweet, from aromatic to pungent, and each had its unique and delicious flavour. As I have tasted quite a few sake over the past few years I’ve begun to recognise the level of the refinement of the rice, and can tell from the smoothness how polished the rice was before fermentation.
I’m not at the individual gradation level yet, though. That skill is only available to true sake masters with decades of tasting experience, but I can definitely taste the difference between a cheap sake and one with quality. (If you ever take Japan Airlines, don’t choose the sake that has ‘alcohol added’!)
All the sake on offer was, using a technical term, awesome! In fact I was glad I was limited by budget and customs, otherwise I would have been tempted to invest in several crates!
I later found that Sado Island hosts a number of sake breweries so if you’re in the area, make a day of it and check them all out!
