For Hakkaisan Sake, it all starts with local spring water and the highest possible quality rice. Their production facility is located in Minami Uonuma City, a snowy area within a region known for sake production. The winter snow melts to provide fresh spring water with the change of seasons and warm weather, playing an integral part in the ecosystem that also produces the particular Koshihikari rice.
Hakkaisan’s products are designed to offer pure and clean flavors that compliment, rather than compete with, a variety of cuisines. Through a combination of traditional hand crafted processes and carefully designed modern technology, their mission is to scale up the quantity of their sake while retaining their high quality standards, reflecting their motto: Quality Sake For All.
One of the aspects of production that adds a lot to the final product is the daiginjo method of brewing. Sake is classified in part based on the extent to which rice is polished before being fermented, and daiginjo sakes are made from rice that has been polished at least 50%, which is a high percentage. Machines are used to mill and wash the rice to achieve the highest quality, as explained by Brewmaster, Executive Manager and Production Director, Mr. Shigemitsu Nagumo: “We are not particular about [doing everything] by hand processes. We apply machinery such as rice milling and washing the rice because obviously milling machines would do [a] better job than human hands.” The consistency they achieve by washing the rice mechanically is one of the characteristics of the finished products. With quality as the ever present goal, they reserve the human touch for other elements of production: “processes such as making koji and mixing the fermentation tanks are done all by hand because human hands do better work. The most important point is to create the quality and the flavor that we are aiming to make. We will bring in the best practice in each process to do so” says Nagumo.
By carefully choosing the best ways to increase quantity, they have been able to retain quality, which shows in there high scoring products, all of which scored over 90 Points as finalist, with their Hakkaisan Yukimuro Snow Aged 3 Years Junmai Ginjo Sake Niigata taking the Chairman’s Trophy with 95 Points. The aged sake shows complex aromas of green banana, baked pineapple, spring flowers, and honeydew. The palate has an impressive texture that combines ripe melon fruit with a bit of vanilla-toned rice grain and finishes quite dry and crisp.
