Lightly cloudy with a clean white hue. Aromas are delicate, hinting at newly blossomed flowers, fresh rice, cucumbers and spring water. The flavor is almost sweet in the mouth, made crisp with a deep minerality and flowers on the finish. Easy to enjoy and super versatile with food.
Stats:
Backstory:Stats:
- Brewery: Miwa Shuzo
- Brand: Shirakawago
- Established: 1837
- Prefecture: Gifu
- Rice: Hidahomare
- Polish: 60%
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Starter method: Sokujo
- Awards: Silver in the Wine and Spirits Wholesaler's of America 68th Annual Convention & Exposition Wine Tasting Competition.
Founded in 1837, Miwa Shuzo is located in Ogaki City, known as the City of Water, in Gifu Prefecture. The brewery's most famous brand, Shirakawago, resulted from a request from the Mayor of Shirakawa Village, a UNESCO Heritage site, to produce doburoku: a traditional, viscous cloudy sake for use in the Historic Shirakawago Village doburoku festival. The modern version of the Shirakawago brand, Shirakawago Sasanigori Junmai Ginjo, was born out of a collaboration between Miwa Shuzo and its exporter to produce a mellow and light-bodied nigori sake with wide versatility. Shirakawago has since become the top seller of nigori in Japan.
Shirakawago Sasanigori is a classic unfiltered sake made from Hidahomare rice, a varietal native to the mountains of Gifu and named for the mountain region Hida, famed for its Unesco site at Hida-Takayama. To produce this usunigori, filtered sake is carefully blended with Moromi (sake mash) to produce a precise level of particulate. It is best served very cold to accentuate its distinctive mellow flavor and smoothness. Never cloying, this can be recommended even to those not usually fond of nigorizake.