HEAVENSAKE PRESTIGE I Régis Camus & Noguchi Naohiko (720 ml)

Régis Camus — chef de cave at Maison Rare Champagne and the architect of Heavensake's cross-brewery assemblage philosophy — collaborated directly with Noguchi Naohiko, the legendary toji of Ishikawa Prefecture's mountain brewery, to produce this Prestige I. The pairing is deliberate: Camus brings the French négociant discipline of selecting and composing lots; Noguchi brings decades of hand-crafted kura tradition from Ishikawa's cool, mineral-rich mountain environment, where cold winters and clean snowmelt water define fermentation conditions.

The Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute operates in the mountains of Ishikawa, where low ambient temperatures allow slow, controlled fermentation — a condition that drives the aromatic precision and textural density that Camus sought for this Prestige tier. Rice is polished to Super-Daiginjo level (≤35% remaining grain), and the expression carries Junmai classification — zero added distilled alcohol, preserving the full-rice character of the assemblage. Fermentation is conducted under the toji's supervision in temperature-controlled tanks, with Camus selecting from a curated panel of batch samples before final composition.

What separates Prestige I from virtually every sake in its price tier is the structural conceit itself: this is not a single-kura expression but a Franco-Japanese assemblage, applying Champagne's multi-lot blending logic to a category that has historically prized single-brewery purity above all else. The result is a sake designed to be served chilled in a wine glass, with a silky mouthfeel and extended finish calibrated to the expectations of a fine-wine drinker rather than a traditional sake ceremony.