Japan's sake makers a-rice to lure over wine lovers

Tokyo

BREWERY executive Kosuke Kuji brought his best sake to a New York booze showcase 16 years ago, hoping to promote high-end Japanese rice wine to a new generation of sophisticated foreign drinkers. They were a little disappointed.

It was not that sake from his Nanbu-Bijin brewery failed to live up to its rating back home as Junmai-Daiginjo, the name given to premium grade vintages. But for aficionados of traditional grape-based wines, the local appellation that produces the main ingredient can be almost as important as the final product - think Napa Valley in California, Bordeaux in France, or Chianti in Italy.

Back in 2001, most of the rice used in Nanbu-Bijin sake came from the prefecture of Hyogo. That is 1,000 km south of where the beverage was made in Iwate, on the northern tip of Japan's main island of Honshu. So when a sommelier at the New York event learned from Mr Kuji where the ingredients came from, the Amer…