Journal

Blog

Stories of makers, ingredients, places and the decisions behind Japan's most compelling drinks.

Drink

“Organic” Is Backed by Legal Standards; “Natural” Is Self-Declared—How to Read a Wine Label

Learn how legally defined organic wine differs from self-declared natural wine, and what certification and label language can reliably tell the reader.

Drink

Clear Amazake

Clear Amazake examines how KOJI CLEAR achieves a transparent appearance while retaining rice, koji and water as the foundation of clear amazake.

Drink

Shochu at Its Base, Liqueur by Category

See how MATCHA CAT uses authentic barley shochu as its base while Japanese law classifies the finished blend as a liqueur.

JAPANESE WINE

The Evolution of Koshu

Trace how Katsunuma winemakers refined Koshu through skin contact, lees aging and vessel choices to reveal the grape’s delicate aroma and texture.

Drink

Returned, Not Added

Explore how Umenoyado Aragoshi Umeshu returns plum flesh to the bottle, creating texture and fruit character from material once removed in production.

Blog

The 30-Year Journey of Gengai Pressed Before Time: The 30-Year Journey of Gengai On the morning of January 17, 1995, the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake devastated Kobe. Among the breweries reduced to rubble was Sawanotsuru, a sake maker that had been brewing in the Nada Gogo region since the Edo period. Amid the destruction, however, one […]

Blog

Two Years of Zero Wine Tariffs

Thailand’s Evolving Wine Scene Two Years of Zero Wine Tariffs: Thailand’s Evolving Wine Scene Thailand’s wine import market continued its upward trajectory into 2025. Data from the industry publication Vino Joy News reveals that imports reached approximately 40.4 million liters—an 8.6% year-on-year increase, marking a second consecutive year of steady growth. This stands in stark […]

Blog

The Virtue of Time

After sake is pressed, something soft and white always remains in the pressing vat: sake lees, or sake kasu. When these lees are distilled, the result is known as kasutori shochu, a traditional spirit distilled from sake lees.

KAGURA

Striking Water, Reviving a Brewery

Every ten meters they drilled, Matsui Shuzo’s fourteenth-generation head, Yatsuho Matsui, tested the water they brought up. He continued until they reached a depth of fifty meters, where he finally rediscovered the same underground water vein once used for brewing sake. It was 2009.

Blog

Not Grain, but Koji

Osuzuyama Distillery Rethinks What “Blended” Means Not Grain, but Koji — Osuzuyama Distillery Rethinks What “Blended” Means Blended whisky is traditionally made by combining malt whisky with grain whisky. But 26 Twenty-Six, produced by Osuzuyama Distillery in Miyazaki Prefecture, quietly reimagines that familiar formula. Instead of grain whisky, it places a house-distilled spirit made from […]

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