All eyes on Aizu

The Minyu Net site has a story on not one, but many, “official” sake for the northern town of Aizu in Fukushima Prefecture.

Seven breweries in and around the town have been chosen to represent it for PR purposes with sake brewed from locally produced rice. The “brand” is called “AIZ’S-EYES”, which if you pronounce it the right way, sounds like saying the name of the town twice.

The seven sake will be in bottles with the same basic design of the local akabeko (red nodding-head cow) folk craft product, with the brewery name given in a stripe down the neck of the bottle. The town hopes that the similar bottles will increase awareness of the area.

The project is one of many sponsored by the Aizu Activate Association, which supports businesses in the 17 towns and villages in the Aizu region.

The aim of the brand is to position itself as the “Bordeaux of sake“, at least in the sense that they’re aiming for a high level of name recognition for the region and its associated products. There are also plans to expand the project to include more breweries in the future.

A 720 ml bottle costs JPY 2,700 including tax. There are only 3,500 bottles available, sold at Aizu’s Lion d’Or and Tsurugajō shops, but there are also plans to sell online.

The breweries participating are:

• Suehiro
• Tsurunoe
• Eisen
• Nagurayama
• Bandai
• Tatsuizumi
• Aizu Musume

Links

• Original article (Japanese, Minyu Net, 13 April 2018) Click through for a photo of the bottle design.
• Suehiro brewery (Japanese)
• Tsurunoe brewery (Japanese)
• Eisen brewery (Japanese)
• Nagurayama brewery (Japanese)
• Bandai brewery (Japanese)
• Tatsuizumi brewery (Japanese)
• Aizu musume (Japanese)