One Koku!

What better way to complete the One Koku Quest than on Nihonshu no Hi??


I've actually been trying to track down this Iwate Prefecture number, Shichifukujin Tokubetsu Junmai, from Kikutsukasa Shuzo, almost since the beginning of this little adventure. There's really very little information I could find about this sake though, SMV +3 and 15.5% abv. Savoury leesy nose, more savoury entry-notes, silky, then a sharp, clean, but heaty finish, oddly more pronounced the colder it is. Assertive personality, with a delayed but pleasantly clean and refreshing aftertaste of steamed rice. Mouthwash for the "Seven Lucky Gods!"

So, 1 koku of sake! 180 litres consumed, all by isshobin, 100 unique bottlings (repeats were not counted), all but two available in the U.S. All consumed within 21 months, though I should discount about 2 months worth of travelling to sake-barren locales, and our somewhat curtailed but not eliminated wine and beer habits surely didn't help. Eliminate as well at least a month's worth of waiting time for this last bottle, and I think this could have been safely managed within a year!

Securing unique bottles towards the end was getting difficult. Of course, it would have been easier had I just ordered the whole lot of Kubota and Hakkaisan, but the easy way is not the interesting way. If anything, we've learned a lot about just how diverse the sake offerings just within the U.S. can be, especially considering the format restriction. While there are certainly more than 100 different isshobin available here (but maybe not 100 more, maybe not even 50 more), they're not the easiest to track down, especially as there are definitely some geographical and market issues to overcome (i.e., many distributors do not deal with retail outlets, rather directly with restaurants and bars, and good luck if you don't live near NYC or San Francisco/Los Angeles.)


Nonetheless, we managed to drink sake from 90 different companies, brewing in 39 Prefectures, missing only Okinawa and Kagoshima, which produce no nihonshu, plus Kyushu's Miyazaki and Nagasaki, Shikoku's Kagawa, and Kanto's Kanagawa and Chiba. Predictably, Niigata was tops prefecturally, with 13 bottles represented (good thing we skipped Kubota after all.) Yamagata and Shizuoka rang in with 6 each, followed by Fukushima, Akita and Nagano with 5. For the most part, my selection criteria was first and foremost availability; only latterly did I start looking for sake from specific prefectures. Still, the distribution demonstrates the popularity of the clean alpine style, both at home and abroad.

Predictably, only 13 bottles were in the aruten style, i.e. alcohol-added, of which 6 were futsushu. Taxes! Actually, 6 futsushu was a bit of a surprise to me, as apart from the Australian Shirayuki, none were from the big house brands. At the other end, only 4 bottles were at the junmai daiginjo / daiginjo level, again not surprising to find so few of the more rarified, and costly, stuff. The bulk was "plain old" junmai, 37 in fact, plus 18 tokubetsu junmai, and 29 junmai ginjo.

Despite the apparent geographical clustering, the range of styles available here in this format is impressive: kimoto, yamahai, nama, genshu, muroka, taru, and a number of karakuchi of various descriptions. And while it is no great surprise that Yamada Nishiki, Gohyakumangoku, and Miyama Nishiki accounted for almost half the bottlings, 22 other rice varieties found their way into these bottles.

Finally, some statistics:

Semaibuai: 59.3% (avg., out of 95), ranging from 70% to 40%
Nihonshu-do: +3.9 (avg., out of 89), ranging from ±0 to +17!
Acidity: 1.5 (avg., out of 81), ranging from 1.0 to 2.0
Amino Acidity: 1.4 (avg., out of 25), ranging from 1.0 to 1.9
ABV: 15.5% (avg., out of 88), ranging from 14% to 17.5%

I have to say that the numbers are all a bit larger than I'd have expected setting out, but it's an interesting set - fine, dry, with a tendency towards structure and flavour. On the whole, couldn't complain about what was in the bottles. My complaints would be limited to what was on the outside! Information like this was only sporadically available on the bottle itself. Worst though was information on the choice of yeast, whether on labels or online. I could only find yeast choices for 24 brews, of which 12 were #9, and 3 were #10. Even if brewers feel this shouldn't be important to the consumer, I think people would still like to know. It certainly wouldn't be difficult to put this information on the back labels.

Importers! Please!

So, having gone through this, I imagine my sake postings may not be as frequent, as we still like to drink from isshobin (it remains the best value in sake!), but there aren't so many new products to try. At the same time, having finished the "quest", hopefully I'll use the regained flexibility and try some of those "little" bottles. And, there is definitely some exciting stuff coming my way soon!