Before the small, artisanal Akashi-tai ‘kura’ – or brewery to you and me (well, me anyhow) – became renowned for making sake, it produced soy sauce and traded in rice. This began towards the end of what is known as the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867), and it wasn’t until 1918 that Akashi first started making sake.
Since then, Akashi have taken pride in brewing sakes with the choicest ingredients, that are more often than not produced locally. The brewery’s proximity to the coast and their insistence of tanks with Japanese cedar wood lids leads to sea air impacting the flavour of Akashi-Tai sakes with a slightly salty and particular character. The key ingredient, however, is the yamada-nishiki variety of rice. Known as a superior strain, it’s native to the region just north of Akashi, and considered for sake production above all else because its starch molecules are loosely grouped. This allows koji mold spores to easily enter the structure, and produce superior koji and malted rice.
Akashi aren’t traditional or artisan for its own sake, - as in sake, not sake - oh for goodness sake! I mean - never mind...
Akashi aren’t traditional or artisan in a manner that would hinder them, however, and they have embraced modern innovations such as temperature controlled fermentation in recent years. The more recent progressive outlook led Akashi to individual discoveries and ideas, the prime example probably being the ‘Genmai Aged Sake’; Japan’s first ever brown rice sake. Bottled and released in 2005 following its inception in 2002, ‘Genmai Aged Sake’ represents a truly novel concept, using unpolished (brown) rice that’s aged for a unusually long time.
As relevant now as it was then, Akashi-tai continues to be a market-leader and relentless tailblazer of authentic, Japanese sake. If you fancy a taste of something new, or enjoy the odd sake and want a prime example, you’re in the right place. Kanpai!