Top themes of the last sake decade

Sake news outlet SAKETIMES recently celebrated 10 years in business, and identified 10 keywords they see as defining sake over the last decade based on interviews and the 6,700 articles they’ve published in that time.

They also grouped the 10 keywords under common themes – the first being the quest for added value as a result of the decline in sake consumption overall since it peaked in the early 1970s, and in particular the more recent shift away from futsushu and towards “premium” sake (特定名称酒, tokutei meisho shu). How do you compete when consumers are looking for something special or meaningful instead of just “something to drink”?

The first factor they identified is polishing ratio, and I think anyone who has been involved with sake for a few years will agree. The previous fixation on heavy polishing, culminating in Tatenokawa’s 1% polished Koumei (光明) and Niizawa’s 0% (actually 0.85%) polished Reikyo – Absolute 0 – (零響), has been replaced to some extent by a more relaxed attitude that also embraces less polishing. Plus there are new polishing methods, like Satake’s Shingin technology, that throw off established associations between polishing % and flavour profile. 

Next in the quest for added value is ageing and vintages. SAKETIMES point to the founding of the Toki Sake Association, a group of breweries promoting ageing, in 2019 as well as sake being aged in different places (dams, caves, etc.) and at a variety of temperatures. [And note that the International Wine Challenge sake division has also introduced a new category for low-temperature aged sake, which suggests the lightly-matured style is here to stay.]

And last in their list of ways to add value is the ever controversial terroir, which some breweries are valiantly trying to carry over from the wine world. It’s interesting to see here that SAKETIMES include a number of philosophies that might be better labelled as “taking over more of the supply chain” (such as the No! to ieru sakagura no kai (農！と言える酒蔵の会, Association of Brewers that Farm)/Farming and Brewing group of breweries that grow at least some of their own rice) or “returning to tradition” (such as reintroducing wooden kioke for brewing). There is also a focus on regionality, with many breweries making a point of sourcing all their rice within their prefecture, plus prefectures putting more effort into developing their own sake rice, yeast and even kōji. The result subsumes a number of regional/supply chain/traditional factors into “terroir”, which I don’t think is what a wine expert would call terroir, but does reflect the Japanese use of the word.

The next theme in the SAKETIMES article is new players, and the first keyword here is sake startups. One is Clear, owner of both SAKETIMES and luxury brand SAKE HUNDRED, which along with a few breweries has been trying to push the envelope for the price of a bottle of sake. There have also been new entrants on the retail side, notably Mirai Sake Company, and in sake-adjacent brewing, such as Wakaze which now operates in France and the US. Plus the rise in companies founded by venture capital shows that investors and venture capitalists now see sake as a bet worth taking.

Next is “craft sake” which is both ill-defined and technically not sake, but anyway. Driven by the lack of sake brewing licenses, new breweries are using basic sake making techniques and then dodging the legal definition of sake by adding botanicals, fruit, tea or other disqualifying ingredients, or by not pressing and thereby making doburoku. The article notes that the number of such “craft sake” breweries has been increasing since 2020, and the Japanese Craft Sake Association currently has 8 members. [This generates a lot of news coverage, but whether it benefits the “standard” sake industry is questionable.]

Last in this section is new-but-not-really breweries that have undergone massive changes. These include Tenryohai in Niigata, taken over by a 24-year-old who launched a successful new brand, the reopening of Tokyo Port Brewery after 100 years, Kamikawa Taisetsu transferring a license from Mie to Hokkaido, and Shiraiwa partnering with the former head of production from champagne company Dom Perignon. [They also mention the Noguchi Naohiko Research Institute, but I thought that was simply a new brewery…]

Moving on to the third and final theme of adapting to modern lifestyles, the first keyword is challenges facing large breweries. The big players are leveraging their technical expertise in combination with younger employees and new ideas to launch new brands (such as the Bekkaku range made by young employees at Hakutsuru, and the Hyakumoku label from Kikumasamune), focusing on new formats (Gekkeikan’s 180 ml The Shot bottles) or yeast (Takara’s banana-heavy Kaori Yeast 877).

Smaller and lighter containers are also on the rise. SAKETIMES names four canned sake brands (|chi-Go-Can, Kura One, Hitomaku, Prime Sake) and their 180 ml format is ideal for people who see a 720 ml or 1.8 L bottle as too much. (Canned sake is of course not new, as the Kikusui Funaguchi cans have been around for a long time, and Kikusui itself is now diversifying into selling sake in pouches equipped with taps that let you pour only what you need without exposing the remaining sake to oxidation. Kojima Sohonten have done something similar but more aesthetically pleasing with their bag-in-box sake.)

Another important aspect of bringing sake into line with modern lifestyles is revisiting food pairing. This seems well underway, as seen in specialist pairing bars like Marie Chiba’s EUREKA (successor to GEM by Moto), the inclusion of sake on restaurant pairing menus and breweries selling food that pairs well with their sake or making sake specifically to go with certain foods (such as Imayotsukasa’s IMA for oysters or Sakuramasamune’s Bonds Well With Beef). The article also suggests that brewers are getting more comfortable with higher acidity as it can lead to interesting food pairings.

Crowdfunding and events is the last keyword, and something that SAKETIMES attributes to the closure of restaurants during the pandemic, which forced breweries to find other ways to sell their sake. It also led to an explosion in online shops and social media accounts for sake breweries as they struggled to make contact with consumers. And since restrictions ended there has been a flurry of new events, such Aoyama Sake Flea, Craft Sake Week and Sake Park.

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(SAKETIMES 8 July, 2024 Japanese)

This is a great list, and definitely highlights some trends that aren’t as apparent outside of Japan. But I would add a few more!

The first is climate change. I have written about this in some detail for Sake on Air (more articles to be published) but climate change is putting pressure on both the sake industry and the rice farmers that they depend on. Almost every brewery I’ve visited over the last two years had issues with rice not dissolving readily and/or warmer winter temperatures forcing them to adapt the way they brew. There are also longer-term issues with poor harvests of specific varieties forcing breweries to change their plans at short notice, and prefectures racing to develop new, heat-tolerant rice strains.

Another significant factor is sustainability, often seen in Japan as commitments to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This is something many breweries are deeply concerned about anyway, as they rely on the quality of the local water and rice, and the economic and social health of their
communities.

I’ve also noticed more breweries who are catering to geekiness among sake fans. One example is Tsuchida, with their 99 range of sake made with kōji grown for different lengths of time, which I came across at the KURABITO STAY B&B/brewing experience sake tourism company.

On a slightly more sobering note, the ageing population of sake workers and lack of successors for breweries remains an issue. It has opened up some possibilities for new entrants, who are finding breweries willing to transfer licenses, and has also led to a very practical approach to automation in many places – for example bringing in simple lifting equipment to reduce the strain of manual labour.

And one factor suggested by Sam Boulton (@boultononbooze) is story. This ties in with the lifestyle points above – if people are no longer buying sake just because it’s something to drink, why buy sake and why choose a specific brewery? Story plays a huge part in engaging consumers and connecting them to brewers and their products. It’s also a critical component for most crowdfunding projects, part of breweries reinventing themselves and the increase in brewery sites and social media accounts, so it effectively underlies a number of these keywords.