So, the International Wine Challenge (IWC) sake division.
The competition has 10 categories that brewers can enter their sake under, and a trophy for each one. Winners for each category for 2025 are:
- Futsushu: Hanaakita by Hokushika (Akita Pref)
- Honjozo: Atagonomatsu Kennai honjozo by Niizawa Shuzo (Miyagi Pref)
- Junmai: Asamayama IBUKI by Asama Shuzo (Gunma Pref)
- Ginjo: Mutsu Hassen Pink Label by Hachinohe Shuzo (Aomori Pref)
- Junmai Ginjo: Daisekkei junmai ginjo D Omachi by Daisekkei Shuzo (Nagano Pref)
- Daiginjo: Nagasaki Bijin daiginjo by Fukuda Shuzo (Nagasaki Pref)
- Junmai Daiginjo: Shichiken Hakushin junmai daiginjo by Yamanashi Meijo (Yamanashi Pref)
- Koshu: Jumangame junmai koshu by Kameda Shuzo (Chiba Pref)
- Aged Sake: Chotokusen junmai daiginjo Zankyou 2018 by Niizawa Shuzo (Miyagi Pref)
- Sparkling: Kamotsuru Sparkling Seishu Koju by Kamotsuru Shuzo (Hiroshima Pref)
Congratulations to all the brewers!
… But wait, there’s more! 22 more trophies. A Tochigi futsushu and Miyagi honjozo trophy. A nigori honjozo trophy with no prefecture attached. Hyogo trophies for taruzake and junmai. A Yamagata taruzake trophy. Hiroshima junmai trophy. Three junmai ginjo trophies for Kanagawa, Nagano and Kochi. Five junmai daiginjo trophies for Miyagi, Tochigi, Chiba, Hyogo and Tottori. Daiginjo trophies for Gunma and Saitama, koshu for Niigata and Nara, aged sake for Miyagi, sparkling rose for Yamagata and sparkling nama for Yamaguchi.
There used to be fewer of these prefectural trophies, and as far as I know they were simply the top ranking sake for each prefecture in a particular category. Which is nice to know, but there’s nothing on the IWC site to say if they’re selected in the same way as category trophies. If Prefecture X asks for a trophy for its top-scoring brewery in Category Y, does it get one regardless of whether that sake would have won a trophy or not?
Some of the prefectural trophies are a bit predictable–five for junmai daiginjo? Really? But none for the humble ginjo?
There isn’t even a nigori category, so why is there a nigori honjozo trophy and how many of them were entered? Same for taruzake, that’s not a category so how are there taruzake trophies for Hyogo and Yamagata?
And some of the trophies are… oddly specific to say the least. How many sparkling nama were entered from Yamaguchi? Or sparkling rose from Yamagata? Are these questions where the answer is… just one?
———-
I will attempt to get answers to these questions, and if I do I will let you know.
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