Dassai Junmai Daiginjou Migaki Niwari Sanbu 23 (300 ml)

When a competitor reached 24% seimaibuai, Hiroshi Sakurai extended Dassai's milling run a final 24 hours to arrive at 23% — a deliberate provocation that set the modern ceiling for ultra-polished sake and helped ignite the global premium sake market. That decision defines everything about this expression. 100% Yamada Nishiki rice is continuously milled for approximately 168 hours, removing 77% of each grain to leave only the starchy core, then washed in 10 kg batches under running water and soaked for roughly 15 minutes — a precision impossible at industrial scale. Fermentation proceeds in small individual tanks with handmade koji applied manually, temperature-controlled throughout the moromi to coax maximum aromatic lift from the stripped grain. Dassai was the first sake brewery in Japan to deploy a centrifuge for commercial pressing, separating sake from mash without mechanical pressure — a direct intervention to preserve the volatile esters that extreme polishing unlocks. Bottling follows the proprietary Hayata pasteurization method (Patent 2013-008455): filled cold below 5°C, hot-shower pasteurized, then rapid-cooled — locking in freshness without the textural penalty of conventional heat treatment. The result is brewed year-round by permanent staff (no seasonal toji), using Iwakuni's regionally classified soft mountain water, purified on-site. Drink young to honour the brewery's freshness-first philosophy.