Fukushima Prefecture has spent so long winning overall at the National New Sake Appraisal (全国新酒鑑評会, zenkoku shinshu kanpyoukai, official name “Annual Japan Sake Awards”) that it was a shock when they failed to win for the 10th consecutive year in 2023.
Held since 1911 and currently administered by the JSS and the National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB), this prestigious national contest evaluates breweries on their ability to make technically excellent sake, with brewers reserving the final period of their brewing year to make a very special daiginjo to submit. (出品酒, shuppin-shu, “sake that will be/was submitted”)
The 2023 contest judged sake produced in the 2022-2023 brewing year (BY 2022), and narrowed 818 entries from all over Japan down to just 394 awards and 218 gold awards.
And this year the most gold awards went to… Yamagata with 20. Hyogo was right behind them with 19, then Nagano with 16, Niigata with 15, and Fukushima coming in in fifth place with 14.
Among the Fukushima breweries who did win, Okunomatsu took a gold award for the 14th year in a row, while Shirai Shuzoten, makers of Bandaihou, won for the 10th consecutive year. Sato Shuzoten, makers of Fujinoi, won for the first time while Homare Shuzo won for the first time 6 years with their Aizu-Ichi.
Some of the blame for the reversal of fortune (apart from it being incredibly difficult to keep it up in the first place) was placed on the year’s rice, which was said to be the hardest in a decade. There was also an acknowledgement that other prefectures recognised Fukushima’s technical excellence and had put effort into catching up over the years.
And for those frustrated that Fukushima didn’t make it to 10 years of dominating the awards? The advice from Hiroki Abe, from the Wakamatsu branch of Minyu Net, was to put that energy into promoting the prefecture’s sake. Kanpai!
(Fukushima Minyu Net, 25 March 2023)
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Focusing on the number of gold awards per prefecture is a bit confusing – prefectures have different numbers of breweries, so shouldn’t it be percentage-based? Otherwise Hyogo has an unfair advantage…
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