Ohmine Shuzo

In the words of Jim Rion, author of Discovering Yamaguchi Sake, a technical sake translator and co-hoster of the (excellent!) Sake Deep Dive podcast, “Ohmine Shuzo in Yamaguchi Prefecture is less a sake brewery and more a sake industry black box a’la Willy Wonka’s enigmatic chocolate factory.” Staff are “dressed in chic black designer uniforms,” the Bauhaus concrete construction is modernist and sleek, and the menu offers a wider assortment of lattes than sake. It’s also in the middle of nowhere, and while the design is open and airy, tours are not allowed nor is any technical detail offered. Sake is priced roughly 50% higher, spec for spec, than neighboring breweries, and it’s apparent that Japanese sake aficionados aren’t the target. Actually, in a way, we (American consumers) are.
A pink and blue neon sign (should I call it art?) hangs in the foyer, cryptically reading: 1882: BORN / 1955: DEAD / 2010: REBORN / 2018: SAKE AGAINST THE WORLD. This is as much backstory as you’ll get for a long-shuttered rural brewery, resurrected by the architect son who returned to Yamaguchi from NYC. 2018 brought a new facility and Stockholm Design Lab rebranding, while 2020 brought the fortuitous investment, creative vision and pop culture hype of Pharrel Williams and NIGO. Fortunately, the quality backs it up.