Noguchi Naohiko Limited Edition 01 (770 ml)

Naohiko Noguchi began brewing in 1949 at age seventeen and went on to win 27 Gold Medals at the Annual Japan Sake Awards — including 12 consecutive years — before founding his own institute in 2017 at 85, specifically to break the industry taboo that namazake must be consumed young. The 2018 Limited Edition is the commemorative 70th-year vintage, drawn from the single best batch of that season and aged unpasteurised for over one year in temperature-controlled stainless-steel tanks before release. Brewing water is medium-hard snowmelt from Mt. Hakusan, filtered through the underground strata of the Kaga plain and drawn from an on-site well — its mineral composition is specifically selected to support the house's Yamahai-shikomi fermentation, in which ambient lactic acid bacteria build the starter without any added lactic acid, generating a high-acid, high-umami moromi. The bottling is Muroka (unfiltered), Nama (unpasteurised), Genshu (undiluted), preserving the full aromatic charge of the uncut ferment. What no peer does: NNSI deliberately positions namazake as a cellaring candidate, inverting the category's foundational assumption about freshness. The 2018 vintage delivers exotic muscat, ripe white peach, and banana with a slight caramel undercurrent, a fine smooth mouthfeel, and a mineral finish; designed for long-term cellaring at cool temperatures.