Yamahai Honjozo (720 ml)

When toji Takahashi Toichi — recognised by the Emperor of Japan in 2015 as a national artisan — chose yamahai for this Honjozo, he applied the same low-temperature, no-stirring discipline that has earned Saiya Brewery over twenty gold medals at the National Sake Competition since 1989. The result is a yamahai that is clean and mellow rather than the funky, oxidative style common to the method.

Saiya's kura sits on a natural 6-metre slope in Yurihonjo City, Akita — the Nobori-gura, or climbing brewery — where rice polishing begins at the hilltop and fermentation proceeds downward by gravity, eliminating mechanical pump stress at every stage. Brewing water is drawn from a mineral-rich underground spring fed by Mount Chokai (鳥海山), whose snowmelt imparts a clean, soft mineral backbone.

Production follows the San-nai-zukuri (three-no) philosophy: no paddle-mixing, no charcoal filtration, and no water addition — bottled as genshu (undiluted) at natural ABV. The yamahai moto starter develops lactic acid gradually at low temperature without wild-microbe intervention, building texture without funk. Rice is Akita Sake Komachi, over half of which is grown by brewery employees themselves — end-to-end paddy-to-bottle control that is exceptionally rare.

What sets this Honjozo apart: brewer's alcohol is added (as permitted in Honjozo), yet the San-nai-zukuri bottling philosophy — genshu, unfiltered — delivers a structural density and native texture that most Honjozo producers deliberately dilute away. A drinking window of 1–3 years from release; serve lightly chilled or at room temperature to open the umami register.