Featured at FUKUI News paper! & @DIME!
@DIME Original site (Japanese only)
Fukui News Paper Original site (Japanese only)
<Translated to English below>
@DIME
I drank an ultra -luxury sake “Bon / Super Gin Vintage” that costs 1.1 million yen per bottle!
Sake brands that have won more than 1000 awards around the world
On September 6, 2024, the Japan Foreign Correspondents Association held a press conference by a brewery manufacturer of Fukui Prefecture, Fujiyoshihira Shoten, announcing the official release of sake “Bon -Super Gin Vintage”. The new launch of sake is not unusual news, but why did you bother to hold a press conference? Furthermore, why is that place the Japan Foreign Correspondents Association?
The press conference venue is the Japan Foreign Correspondents Association, and there are reporters from overseas media as well.
There are two reasons. One is that the price of “Bon / Super Gin Vintage” released this time is 1.1 million yen including tax, and it is highly priced in the history of sake, and the “Brahma” series of Fujiyoshihira Shoten is only in 1998. However, it has won the highest level of prize at more than 1,000 reputation in Japan and overseas, exported to more than 100 countries around the world, and in 2020 it has won five stars in the World Sake Brewery ranking. This is because it is a representative brand that leads the overseas sake boom.
Kato Yoshihei Shoten is a brewery of sake in Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture. Sake brewery, the current president, is founded in the late Edo period, Mansion (1860). President Kato Dan is the 11th generation. Since it was the first time in the first national sake soy sauce random held in Japan in 1923, it has been awarded the highest award for the fourth consecutive year at the Hokuriku Sake Appraisal, which has been held since 1976. It has also been dedicated and has been adopted in important seats in Japan. In 1963, he was unified under the name of “Bon”, which had been named “Bon”, which had been named only the sake of the highest rank in the warehouse.
What kind of sake is “Bon / Super Gin Vintage”?
Kato Hirayoshi Shoten has been making sake brewing that has been focused on “ice temperature aging” and “polishing rice” for over 80 years.
Rice rice phase of rice used for sake brewing is generally around 70 %, but Daiginjo sake is less than 50 %. However, the highest rank of Kato Yoshihei Shoten, “Bon / Super Gin”, has a rice phase of 20%of the rice polishing. It is technically possible to polenches up to 1 %, but it turns out that polishing does not become alcohol, and now we make super -luxury varieties that have been polished to a few percent.
The rice polished rated commission of “Bon / Super Gin Vintage” released this time is a confidential company. The liquor tax law stipulates that phase rice is specified in Junmai Daiginjo, so there is no description of “Junmai Daiginjo” on the “Bon / Super Gin Vintage”.
In addition, the upper limit of normal ice temperature is minus 10 ° C at around 5 years, but “Bon / Super Gin Vintage” has been ripened for more than 10 years. According to President Kato, aging has waves, so tasting every year for more than 10 years, leaving only 1/2 of the resulting food, continuing to ripen ice temperature, and when it has become more than 11 years, the taste is more than 11 years. It is said that only a good 1/4 was left as “Bon/Super Gin Vintage”
According to President Kato, the number of units sold is 200, but there are already more than 5 times orders and sold out before the release. For this reason, there was no tasting only at the press conference, but the special valuable one was opened by President Kato. Twenty media officials gathered at the conference venue could be tasted by lottery.
“First of all, please check the scent before taste,” says Kato. Just bringing your face close to the glass rises an unreasonable scent. An unexpected voice of “scent not like sake” leaked from the mouth of the tasting people. However, it is not wine. It is a gentle, elegant and comfortable scent that is different from the so -called “Ginjo incense”. And the softness, smoothness, and good balance when it is blown into the mouth. The pleasant thing has passed through the throat, and the lingering scent remains all the time.
The purpose of the release is to create a high -quality sake market in the world.
At the press conference, President Kato said the purpose of this new release as follows.
“If you look around the world’s liquor market, there are markets of millions of yen per million, including Romanes Conti, and in the whiskey market, it is not unusual for vintage whiskey to be several million yen. Both are supported by the wealthy and have been recognized in the world market in recent years, and are said to be growing in the world, but they are said to be a high -end market. There is only a few thousand yen products, “(President Kato).
A global Japanese food boom occurred when Japanese food became a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2013, but in fact “Traditional Sake Brewery” has also been applied to UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, and at the end of this year. The result is announced. UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage registration is a wish for the Japanese sake brewing industry. It is said that President Kato is also doing various exercises, and this release may be one of the appeals that sake has the same potential of wine and whiskey.
“In order to open up the sake market worldwide, we need to create a high -quality market with one million units, and we have to propose a regular sake that matches it. I want to do my best to be said to be a wonderful world treasure that is as good as wine. “(President Kato)
Despite the already sold out, the PR pilgrimage to the wealthy hotels from the end of September to the end of September may be an appeal for acquiring intangible cultural heritage. In September, a special meeting at a famous store (Michelin Guide Star Equipment Store) in SOHO in New York in September, and in October, the famous Dubai shop “Special Association at Z U MA A,” In the moon, the first co -host of Mumbai’s “Taj Mahal Hotel” is scheduled to be co -hosted by Mumbai’s “Tata Group, Tata Group, Tata Group, and Sake Brewery.
At the end of the press conference, there was a speech by Kenjiro Moji, a former UNESCO Japan Ambassador to the UNESCO Nippon Ambassador to Kramaster (the traditional Japanese liquor contest held in France).
Mr. Moji said, “It is said to be the sake boom, but the production of sake has dropped to less than one -fifth compared to the peak about 50 years ago, and the number of sake brewery is less than one -third. Export is strong. However, the amount is still well known, “he said, saying,” UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, it is not an alcoholic beverage in UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, but it is a Japanese culture. I want to declare things widely inside and outside. “
Fukui News Paper
On September 6th, long-established sake brewery Kato Yoshihei Shoten (Yoshie-cho, Sabae City, Fukui Prefecture, representative Kato Danshu) announced that it will release a sake called “Bon Chogin Vintage” on October 1st with a suggested retail price of 1.1 million yen. The sake is made using sake rice that has been polished to the utmost, and the long period of aging has resulted in a refined, sweet, and full-bodied sake. Only about 200 bottles will be produced. Kato is enthusiastic, saying, “I want to develop this into a brand that will lead the global alcohol market.”
“Bon Chogin Vintage” is made from “Bon Chogin” brewed in 2013, which has been aged for over 10 years at a freezing temperature of minus 10 degrees. The sake rice used is grown in the Special A area of Kuchiyokawa-cho, Miki City, Hyogo Prefecture, which is considered to be the highest quality Yamadanishiki rice. The rice was polished over 10 days to remove impurities, instead of the usual 1 week, and the polishing ratio is not disclosed, but it has been polished down to a few percent.
Kato says, “By carefully polishing the rice and fermenting it for a long period of time, it has a sweet aroma like ripe fruit and an elegant and light taste. It’s a finish that we’ve never had before.”
Until now, the company’s sake has been priced at around 100,000 yen at most. While some wines can sell for several million yen, this has not been the case for sake, says Kato, and “We want to prove that Fukui’s local sake is worth that much and take it to the next level.”
The alcohol content is 16%, and the bottle is 720 ml. It will be sold at retailers in and outside the prefecture that carry Bon. According to the company, it is expected to sell out in one day. They plan to continue production from next year onwards.
They also plan to sell it overseas, with announcements planned in Mumbai, India, New York, and Dubai in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
