Sunflower Club Monthly Archives

Matsunoi Tokubetsu Honjozo club profile [never used]

Matsunoi Tokubetsu Honjozo club profile [never used]

Yutaka Furusawa is a classically trained Echigo Guild toji. His style is clean, dry on the finish, with a robust core. Everything in the brewery is old, recalling the era when Matsunoi produced bulk sake under contract for big breweries, or a decade ago when his late brother was toji, and Matsunoi drew accolades for a string of national competition trophies. A melancholy lingers behind the sense of humor and duty.

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SEPTEMBER 2023: Tedorigawa

SEPTEMBER 2023: Tedorigawa

This month’s club looks at two different interpretations of elegance under the Yoshida Shuzo banner. Tedorigawa Daiginjo Iki na Onna, which translates roughly to “Lady Luck,” is an interpretation of sake elegance that dates from the previous Yoshida generation. I’ve been lucky to have Master Sommeliers and MS candidates visit my shop, and Iki na Onna captures their sense of ephemeral elegance as only the best burgundy, or daiginjo, can. Representing modern elegance is Yoshidagura “U” Junmai Yamahai “Unique,” which (in Japan) falls under the brewery’s Yoshidagura brand, not its more famous Tedorigawa brand. Yoshidagura (Yoshida = family name, gura = brewery) is distinct from Tedorigawa in housing Yasu and his team’s innovations. Tedorigawa is the classics, Yoshidagura is the new.
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