Nagayama Honke Shuzo 永山本家酒造場

Taka  貴

~A quest for terroir through sake~ 

With influence from great wine domaines in Europe, Takahiro Nagayama, the 5th generation of Nagayama Honke Shuzo, and his team have pride and great appreciation for the natural resources around them and their local community, taking steps to preserve these bonds. The sakes crafted are a reflection of the natural resources: rice, water, the microorganisms in the environment and a bond they share with the local community.

Established in 1888 by Kitsutaro Nagayama in the Futamatase district of Ube city, the family brewery had been always deeply rooted with the local community throughout generations, from supporting local festivals to building schools and shrines. Fast forward to the late 90s, in an era when the consumption of sake had been declining and many breweries struggling to stay in business, Takahiro Nagayama returned from studying abroad to help turn around the family brewery. His decision to first go to Hiroshima to learn brewing and fermentation became a turning point as he met a sake retailer who was passionate for Junmai sake, a category that only made up 5% of the sake market at the time. After his studies, he worked directly under a Toji for 3 years and another year with a consultant Toji, Takahiro had begun fully brewing his own sakes in 2002. A year later he and his brewery were named as the “hidden gem” in a prominent industry magazine. This was a key turnaround for the brewery.

The name for the flagship sake, TAKA, was chosen from Takahiro’s name and its clean and elegant character became the label. There are a number a sakes produced under this label including using different rice varieties either grown locally or from top terroir throughout Japan (Okayama and Hyogo), but the “domaine” label is a special bottling, holding true to the meaning of “domaine” on French wine labels, the rice is grown from fields owned and managed by Nagayama Honke Shuzo. The water, which accounts for the majority the composition of sake, is sourced at the brewery’s well. This is a moderately hard water originating as rainfall on the Chugoku Mountain Range which then travels through the limestone plateau of Akiyoshidai, picking up minerals and leading to the Kotou RIver. 

In 2019, an agricultural corporation was established to become a grower of sake rice (though they have been growing rice since 2002), which allows the brewery to take some of the sustainability challenges facing the rice growing industry in Japan, wastage in the growing of rice and an aging grower population. Together with the local community, Nagayama Honke Shuzo continues to have  great appreciation for the natural resources surrounding their community, with its primary focus on crafting some beautifully elegant and textured, sakes of great quality!