Ippongi Kubo Honten

Ippongi Kubohonten is based in Fukui prefecture, and it might be my favorite brewery for seasonal releases. Throughout the year, their interpretations of seasonal sake are creative, original, capture the essence of the seasonal mood, and are an excellent value for money. Fukui, in particular the Oku- Echigen agricultural region, is a pristine environment fed by a combination of alps runoff, heavy winter snow, and the proximity of the Japan Sea. Ippongi is Fukui’s #1 brewery, and Denshin is their premium label. Because of the abundance of local seafood, seafood pairings are implicit. For the abundance of agriculture, local rice is implicit as well. This sake is brewed with the rare, local variety Koshinoshizuku, which Ippongi contracts from local farmers. It’s the most fruity of the bunch, and it delivers overwhelmingly on that point: being “straight from the tank” at 17%, it’s richly concentrated with tropical flavor. The sake isn’t technically sweet (perhaps a gram or two higher than the rest in this lineup) but the character of the fruit is ultra-ripe, tender, and sweet because the water itself is so soft.