First Junmai Daiginjo-only brewery in the Ginjo Kingdom of Yamagata.

NEHAN Black2020 Limited Quantity

As part of our strategy to produce world-class sake, Tatenokawa has focused on exclusively brewing Junmai Daiginjo. We have also been pushing the boundaries of rice polishing by making several sakes with polishing ratios above 20%, single digits even. Recently, though, I have been considering the role vintage and aged sake has to play. Although Nama sake (unpasteurized sake) is popular, sake aged under proper cold storage conditions has a beauty which is not found in young sake. 

We chose the recently revived rice “Soubei Wase” for the first NEHAN series to further add to the unique proposition of this sake. This sake has a gentle and delicate aroma - like a flower - and a soft sweetness. Soubei Wase does not have the ‘flashiness’ of more recently developed sake rice; rather, it gives you a sense of refined rustic beauty. I believe the charm and taste this historic sake rice provides will deepen and mature over time, and thus it is excellent for aging. We hope you enjoy this sake imagining how the taste may have changed with maturation, what it was like freshly brewed and how it will be in years to come.