Houou Biden YuZu (1.8 L)

When Masaki Kobayashi took the helm of the 1872-founded Kobayashi Shuzo in the 1990s, he made a near-suicidal commercial decision: eliminate every non-ginjo product and rebuild the brewery entirely around labor-intensive, aromatic sake — a move that rescued a near-bankrupt house and created one of Japan's rare ginjo-only kura. The Yuzu expression extends that philosophy into the fruit liqueur line, using the brewery's own ginjo sake as its base.

The brewery draws pure underground spring water fed by Nikko mountain snowmelt, filtering through the flat rice paddy plains of Oyama City (historically Mita Village — 'beautiful rice paddy village') along the ancient Nikko Reiheishi Kaido ceremonial road. That soft, mineral-clean water is foundational to the house's characteristically clean finish.

The ginjo base is produced via slow, low-temperature fermentation with entirely hand-made koji in a humidity-controlled multi-tiered koji room, pressed exclusively by fukurozuri gravity drip — no mechanical pressure applied. The yuzu fruit used is Tochigi-grown, sourced within the same agricultural region as the brewery itself.

What sets this apart: the ginjo sake foundation means the base carries genuine aromatic complexity — muscat and clean rice depth — rather than the neutral spirit base common in most fruit liqueurs. Toji is Mayumi Kobayashi, one of Japan's rare female master brewers, in an unusual husband-president / wife-toji partnership. The 1.8 L isshobin format makes this a rare large-format offering in the fruit sake category.