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***English translations below****.
Hara Koji, a famous buyer who wholesales alcohol to all of Thailand, visits “Nekka” in Oku-Aizu
Text : Sawako Akune(SHOCHU NEXXT)
Photo : GINGRICH
Getting off the Tohoku Shinkansen at Shin-Shirakawa Station and get in a car. The cityscape quickly fades into the distance, and driving along a road overgrown with trees. Going up and down, and hitting the brakes as the road narrows in places…. Driving along a mountain road to the west for about an hour and a half, and arrive at “Nekka,” a brewery that produces shochu and sake for export, in Tadami Town, Minamiaizu County, Fukushima Prefecture. This town, located on the border with Niigata Prefecture, is a lush green area that retains the original Japanese landscape. Around the Tadami River that flows into the Agano River, there are rice fields as far as the eye can see, virgin beech forests, and peregrine falcons soaring through the sky. The changes of the seasons are also beautiful, from the quiet winter covered in about 2 meters of snow to the spring when the plants and animals come back to life.
The person who visited Nekka on this day was Hara Koji, the managing director of Thailand-based Bacchus Global (hereafter referred to as Bacchus). Founded in 2010, Bacchus is an importer that covers a wide variety of alcoholic beverages, including sake, shochu, wine, whiskey, and liqueurs, and currently wholesales alcoholic beverages to approximately 1,000 restaurants across Thailand. Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, this is Hara’s first business trip to Japan approximately after three years. His purpose is to visit breweries that Bacchus imports from and breweries that he is interested in. Nekka is the northernmost destination on this business trip. “It’s also an advantage that they handle both shochu and sake. I’ve been looking forward to it.” “The fact that they handle both shochu and sake is also an advantage. I’ve been looking forward to it.”
The factory of “Nekka”, which produces both shochu and sake for export. “Thailand is a country I personally like very much… I would be happy if we could do business together,” said Nekka’s president, Norihiro Wakisaka, who welcomed Hara. Wakisaka led the way and we immediately headed to tour the brewery. Wakisaka explained, “This brewery is a renovated farmhouse built in the late Edo period and the Keio era. After the residents left, the place was littered with trash and in a dilapidated state, but we repaired it ourselves.” The building on the road side overlooking the lush rice fields was the original main house, which is now a shop and tasting space. The manufacturing plant is behind it. In a space that was originally a farm shed, small tanks, rice steamers, distillers, and other equipment are lined up. “We have koji-making machines on the second floor, and we basically make both shochu and sake here.”
Nekka obtained a license to produce shochu, a local specialty product, and began making shochu in 2016. In 2021, they obtained a license to produce sake for export, and currently produce shochu, sake, and liqueurs and spirits using these. “In our case, the process up to distillation is almost the same for sake and shochu. I used to work at a sake brewery, and we aim to make shochu with a strong ginjo aroma like sake,” says Wakisaka.
Hearing this, Hara asked, “Does polishing the rice in the case of shochu deepen the ginjo aroma and flavor?” “Shochu is distilled, right? How much difference does polishing and polishing the rice make?”
“That’s it!” says Wakisaka happily. At Nekka, they have been verifying the difference in the taste of shochu depending on the polishing ratio, backed up by data.
“Ethyl caproate, which has an apple-like aroma and is the source of ginjo aroma, is said to be at a level of 5-8 ppm in sake to win a gold medal at the Japanese Sake Tasting Competition. Regular Nekka has 15-20 ppm. Baganekka, which is brewed by polishing the rice to 60%, the same as ginjo sake, has over 40 ppm.”
The Nekka factory, which produces both shochu and sake for export
“There’s one more place I’d like to show you, Hara-san…” says Wakisaka as he leaves the production site, heading to a storage facility that uses the “kura” of an old house. On both sides of the room, about 20 wooden barrels, old and new, are stacked. Wakisaka explains.
“Since the establishment of the brewery, we’ve been experimenting with barrel storage. We also have sherry barrels, Amarone barrels (Italy’s finest red wine), peat barrels, and new mountain cherry barrels. Our brewery has also obtained a spirits license, so we’re thinking of aging raw liquor with an alcohol content of 60-63%, the same as whiskey.”
Hara opens several barrels and smells them, looking pleased with the rich aroma. The tour of the brewery ends with a look at the bottling and labeling work areas. Looking out at the rice fields that surround the distillery, Hara asks Wakisaka:
“Shochu, sake, barrel-aged drinks, and various liqueurs… Nekka is steadily expanding the range of alcohol it makes. Are there any drinks you would like to try in the future?”
Creating a new kind of sake with a patent that only a brewery that grows rice and makes shochu can have.
Wakisaka answers Hara’s question about the brewery’s direction.
So we have some distilled spirits that we’re waiting for the color regulations for “spirits” to be lifted, and we make the alcohol we add to our own sake. The Liquor Tax Act stipulates that shochu can only be made up to 45 degrees, so we stop distilling at 47 degrees and add the “raw alcohol” to the sake.”
…SHOCHU NEXT, a media outlet specializing in shochu. To add a little background on sake for us, ginjo and daiginjo sakes, by definition, have brewing alcohol added to the mash that is less than 10% of the weight of white rice. Distilled alcohol is mainly made from sugar cane, and is made by fermenting the raw materials to create the initial alcohol, which is then distilled to increase the alcohol concentration to over 45%.
“So essentially it’s the raw liquor for shochu, right?” Hara asks. Wakisaka replies.
“That’s right. Adding shochu to sake is a method that used to be called ‘hashira shochu.’ Sake is prone to change in quality, but adding shochu makes it less likely for the flavor to deteriorate. In fact, Nekka has just received a patent for this. In essence, it’s a sake production method that produces little change in aroma or flavor!”
Sake has a high risk of quality deterioration during transportation. Minimizing changes in aroma and flavor is a major benefit. Hara leans forward. “Does it remain unchanged even when it’s corked? Have you tested it?”
Wakisaka answers with a broad smile.
“We conducted a forced deterioration test by leaving it at room temperature of 40 degrees for 30 days, but the numbers hardly changed at all!”
This technology is based on an idea unique to a brewery that has the distillation technology to make shochu, and is authorized to produce sake exclusively for export. In other words, the production of sake using a method unique to “Nekka” is steadily progressing.
How does Aizu breweries’ sake look to Thai buyers? After touring the brewery, the group heads to the tasting space next to the shop. Wakisaka has prepared two brands of authentic shochu, Baganekka and Nekka 44, and Ryusho, a sake that is only available for export and cannot be drunk domestically. Hara, who is also a certified sommelier, has a very serious look on his face. First, he checks the aroma and slowly puts it in his mouth.
“Both shochu are delicious. Nekka 44 has a stronger aroma,” says Hara. “This is the raw Nekka liquor,” says Wakisaka.
“Since no water has been added, this brand has the most aroma. This was a finalist at the 2022 Kura Master, where it won the gold medal. I recommend a partial shot to enjoy the flavor.”
“It might be a little difficult to sell,” says Hara.
“It’s fragrant and delicious, but I’m a little unsure how to sell it in Thailand. I could recommend it as a cocktail base, but when I think about how it would cost about three times as much locally if it was exported, it seems a waste to use it as a cocktail base… Since it has a flavor similar to sake, it might be okay to lower the alcohol content.”
In fact, Wakisaka says that in his hometown of Tadami, there are sake bars that serve the Nekka series at around 15 degrees, with a pre-mixture. He seems convinced that this product lineup may have been developed in anticipation of such demand. “Can you chill the Ryukan even more?” Hara adds.
“Thailand is hot all year round, so we chill the alcohol as much as possible. We keep our sake in ice coolers all the time, too. That’s why I wanted to know how Ryukan tastes when chilled even more. It has a sharp taste with a short aftertaste, and it seems like it would go well with sushi and sashimi, but I wonder how it would be received in Thailand? It’s entirely a matter of local taste, but with sake in particular, there is a Junmai Daiginjo brand called Dassai, which precedes it, so there is a tendency to be influenced by that. That said, just recently, Tosatsuru Sake Brewery’s Ginjo sake Azure has become popular… It’s also a big part of not knowing what will be well-received (laughs).”
Wakisaka was very interested in hearing about the unique alcohol and restaurant scene in Thailand from Hara, saying, “It’s all very informative.” “We want our customers to decide the taste of our alcohol,” he said.
“Personally, I have many thoughts about how I would like to make the taste a little more like this, or how I would like to try making it in a certain way, but I don’t want to be stubborn about it. If it’s Thailand, I want to make alcohol that suits Thailand. Ryukan was made for export to Hong Kong, and the taste and production reflects the local voice. After meeting Hara, I would like to start making sake and shochu that will be accepted in Thailand.”
Because Nekka is a new brewery, they consciously strive to make their own unique sake by incorporating the opinions of experts. Meeting Hara is likely to produce even more delicious sake.
Nekka LLC
Address: 998 Oki, Yanadori, Tadami-machi, Fukushima TEL: 0241-72-8872 https://nekka.jp
Article written by Ms. Sawako Akune / SHOCHU NEXT
