At a glance

• Based in Yamaguchi on the West coast of Japan's’ main island, Honshu

• One of the leading global sake brands focussing on high grade sake

• Numbers famously relate to the polishing ratio of the rice used

Home to the world renowned DASSAI brand, this brewery recently reoriented itself towards the pursuit of the highest quality premium sake and year round production - to the joy of sake lovers everywhere. Not to be confused with beer brewery of the same name!

history

The Asahi Shuzo is a relative newcomer in sake terms, starting sake operations in 1948. Largely producing Futsushu (non-premium sake) under the brand name Asahifuji the brewery was fairly unremarkable and at risk of going out of business as large-scale operators began to dominate the cheaper end of the sake market.

Skip forward to the early 1990s and it was clear that radical change was required to compete and grow sales outside of the local Yamaguchi prefecture. Step in president Hiroshi Sakurai. Leading the breweries Sales efforts - as well as taking the reins as Toji (head brewer) for a short spell - Hiroshi listened to customers and began to form the vision that would lead to the transformation of the brewery. The transformation was essentially to pivot the product and brand toward premium sake with global appeal. This meant a sole focus on high-grade junmai diaginjo with a taste profile that would suit the Western, wine-drinking palatte. The brews singled-out for export used a simple intuitive numerical naming (Dassai 23, 39 and 50*) that referred to the polishing ratios used, and (along with those products’ price points) have contributed to the misconception that the lower the polishing ratio, the “better” the sake.

The name Dassai, translates as "otter festival", and the story goes that long ago a family of otters playing in the nearby rivers would lay out the fish that they caught on the shore, almost as if they were showing them off in a festival.

The brewery’s mission is: “never become complacent with existing tradition and handcrafted techniques, but rather to reform and revolutionize how some things are done, and in so doing make superior sake.”

*A perfect demonstration of this philosophy cam in 2019,when Asahi discontinued the best-selling Dassai 50 and replaced it with the more heavily milled Dassai 45.

Visit their website here