Kinmon

Kinmon Kosyu - Takashi Sasaki - “King of Koshu’.

Kinmon Kosyu Sake Shuzo is a sake brewery located in Akita Prefecture, Japan. It was founded in 1832 and has been producing high-quality sake for over 180 years.

Kinmon Kosyu has won several awards for their sake, including a gold medal at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) in 2015 and a silver medal at the same competition in 2019. They have also won numerous awards at the National New Sake Awards, which is one of the most prestigious sake competitions in Japan.

With so many sakes in the world, what are the unique characteristics of sake?
It is in "umami". We, Kinmon Akita Sake Brewery, have been devoting ourselves to sake brewing that can only be achieved in
this area while training the taste of sake .

The frozen north. That’s the best way to describe Akita. Set on the chilly Sea of Japan, the people of Akita drink more nihonshu than any other prefecture in Japan. Many say their sake is the best. So when we found one of the best producers in the area we were pretty happy. Sasaki san was described to me by one of the top sake makers in Akita as ‘king of koshu’. Koshu is specially (and purposefully) aged sake. When done properly it gives it a rich deep toasty caramel flavour. Kinmon’s ‘Yamabuki’ is such a sake. And when you use it to make plum wine it’s divine. Kinmon also makes an enchanting red rice nihonshu. Using specially cracked red rice and with three separate applications of koji (hence the ‘X3’) the X3 Rosé is one of our favourites with a unique flavour and it recently picked up an award in the London International Wine Challenge (IWC). Their flagship is the Umeshizuku premium plum wine which is more like an expensive Spanish sherry. In fact, they sell well in Spain.

In 2009, it won the "Champion Sake" award in the Japanese sake division of the "Aged Sake Yamabuki Test" International Wine Challenge (IWC) . It was a great achievement to receive the highest award for the first time , outstripping famous daiginjo sake . Since then, he has won the IWC Gold Award six times until 2018. In contrast to ginjo sake, which is extremely fragrant, matured sake has proven to be another of his peaks that brings out the umami of sake.