To lure wine lovers, sake makers learn it's all about rice

Brewers look to Bordeaux-like appellation for Japan sake

Brewery executive Kosuke Kuji brought his best sake to a New York booze showcase 16 years ago hoping to promote high-end Japanese rice wine to a new generation of sophisticated foreign drinkers. They were a little disappointed.

It wasn’t that sake from his Nanbu-Bijin brewery failed to live up to its rating back home as Junmai-Daiginjo, the name given to premium grade vintages. But for aficionados of traditional grape-based wines, the local appellation that produces the main ingredient can be almost as important as the final product — think Napa Valley in California, Bordeaux in France, or Chianti in Italy.

Back in 2001, most of the rice used in Nanbu-Bijin sake came from the prefecture of Hyogo. That’s 1,000 km (600 miles) south of where the beverage was made in Iwate, on the northern tip of Japan’s main island of Honshu. So when a sommelier at the New York event learned from Kuji where the ingredients came from, the American wine expert seemed let down that the sake wasn’t a more artisanal product.

“He wanted sake made from locally grown rice, just as he likes wine out of its vineyard,” Kuji, the 45-year-old president of Nanbu-Bijin, said in an interview at his brewery in Ninohe City.

For Kuji, the experience showed the importance of what’s known in the wine-making world as terroir. It’s a word that the industry uses as a mark of unique regional characteristics and farming practices. The designation can also enhance the value and the appeal of different vintages.

After he got home to Japan, Kuji began a collaboration with farmers in Iwate to develop and produce a rice variety exclusively for the family-run brewery. Now, about a third of Nanbu-Bijin sake is made from local grain — just in time for a surge in Japanese exports that is helping to offset a drop in domestic consumption.

Last year, Nanbu-Bijin generated about 100 million yen ($903,000) in foreign sales, amounting to 15 per cent of its total revenue. Shipments were made to 34 markets, including the US, France, China and Nigeria. That’s up from zero two decades ago, and Kuji says he’s targeting 30 per cent of sales in five years.

“In overseas markets, consumers who love to drink wine also show interest in tasting sake,” Kuji said.

Sake is becoming more appealing to wine fans outside of Japan, Kuji said. But to keep winning converts, the industry needs to adopt the terminology and promotional techniques of traditional vintners, he said. One example would be developing pairings with specific foods, kind of like how wine makers pitch reds with meat and whites with fish.

“When I drink a glass of sake, I can think of the best French food to have with it,” said Olivier Huet, a 45-year-old Frenchman who was qualified as a sake sommelier in 2015 by Sake Service Institute in Tokyo. “As Europeans love to have sushi and white wine, they should want to try sake with cheese.”

Kuji isn’t alone. Brewers across Japan are looking to boost foreign sales and are shifting the way they make and sell sake, particularly in the northeast region known as Tohoku, the largest rice-growing region and a major sake producer.

© Bloomberg