Tokubetsu Junmai Hiyaoroshi (720 ml)

When the Saito family adopted the name Eikun in 1915 to mark Emperor Taisho's ascension, they were already two decades into building a house identity inseparable from one water source: Fusui, the soft, low-iron underground spring beneath the Momoyama Hills, designated among Japan's top 100 water sources. That mineral-minimal water is the structural reason Eikun produces the archetypal Fushimi onna-zake — a mellow, low-astringency texture that Nada's harder water cannot replicate.

The rice is Iwai, a Kyoto-exclusive variety developed in 1933, revived in 1988, and sourced almost entirely through Eikun — the brewery controls roughly 40% of all Iwai grown in the prefecture, making this terroir expression genuinely unreplicable outside Kyoto. Polished to approximately 60% remaining grain (seimaibuai), fermented with Kyoto-sourced yeast under cold Fushimi winter temperatures via traditional sandan jikomi (three-addition) fermentation, and guided by a toji of the Nanbu Toji guild.

The Hiyaoroshi designation is the special feature: brewed in winter, pasteurised once at filling, then aged through summer in tank and released in autumn without a second pasteurisation — a single-heat treatment that preserves a rounder, more developed texture than standard hiire sake while avoiding the rawness of nama. The result is a Tokubetsu Junmai with deepened umami and a softened grain character that marks the seasonal transition.