I was afforded the exquisite pleasure of participating in a two-day sake-centric tour of Tochigi Prefecture conducted by Sake Voyage over the summer. The trip centered around visits to four sake breweries coupled with a lesson in soba making and an exquisite French-Japanese fusion dinner with well-conceived sake pairing. The tour originated in the prefectural capital of Utsunomiya, a short 50-minute Shinkansen ride from Tokyo Station.
On arriving at Utsunomiya Station we were chauffeured to family-run soba restaurant Shôgetsuan in the city of Nasukarasuyama. Here we would receive a lesson in making soba from scratch from Yuka Tanahashi, whose family has owned and operated the establishment since 1885. I’m somewhat challenged in the kitchen, but the ebullient Tanahashi is an excellent and patient teacher. Though it took me the better part of an hour to make noodles from buckwheat flour, it was a thoroughly satisfying experience. My noodles were not nearly as perfectly uniform as those made by my soba sensei, but they were all the more delicious as they were my own personal creation. Immersion in traditional soba making was a fantastic start to the tour.
After our lunch, we proceeded to Shimazaki Shuzô, makers of Azumarikishi and award-winning aged sake Uroko. Shimazaki is known for aging its sake in a network of man-made caves located a few minutes from the brewery. The average temperature in the cave is 10℃, varying ±5℃ seasonally. This makes it ideal for aging sake and also a cool retreat from the summer heat. Around 130,000 mainly 1.8L bottles of daiginjô, the oldest vintage dating to 1970, are maturing in the cave. The brewery offers to age bottles for customers who wish to save them for a special occasion, such as a child’s 20th birthday or an anniversary. The pricing is reasonable, ranging from ¥11,000 for five years to ¥33,000 for twenty for a 1.5L bottle of daiginjô. The tunnel housing these special bottles was nearly full, an indication of how popular the program is. President Kenichi Shimazaki says that he will be adding another row of storage racks to keep up with demand. There are signs in English throughout the tour with detailed explanations.
In a small cavern near the exit to the cave Shimazaki has set up a tasting area where you can purchase bottles. There is also a tasting room and larger shop back at the brewery. I was treated to a sampler set of Uroko Daiginjô aged one, five, and ten years along with Uroko Yamahai Junmai Genshu. Comparing the vintages allows you to recognize how the flavor evolves over time. The sake was served with a well-thought-out pairing of cheese, salami and nuts.
The next stop was Tonoike Shuzôten in the town of Mashiko, which is known for ceramic production. Outgoing president Shigeki Tonoike greeted our small group at the entrance and invited us to participate in a kagami-biraki ceremony (breaking open a sake cask with wooden mallets). Much to our surprise, inside the hollow cask, Tonoike had prepared small souvenir bottles of sake with each of our names inscribed on them.
The tour of the brewery has helpful signs with QR codes which take you to an English audio site when scanned with your cell phone. Post tour, we were led to the tasting area in a traditional room looking out on a Japanese-style garden. Five varieties of the company’s sake (Sanran and Bo) were paired with a mix of grapes, vegetables, tofu, and cheese. As at Shimazaki, the selections allowed us to experiment to determine the matches we preferred with each sake. For souvenirs, in addition to bottles of your favorite brew, the on-premise shop has a room full of Mashiko ware available for purchase. Each has a helpful label indicating the artist’s name in case you find a style particularly engaging.
We returned to Utsunomiya for what would easily prove to be my dining experience of the year. Family-run Otowa Restaurant goes all out in delivering what can only be called cuisinal art. The nine-course meal featured a stunning array of beautifully designed, complex dishes that almost seemed a shame to consume. Owner Kazunori Otowa spent seven years working as a chef in Germany, Switzerland, and France. He opened the extravagant Otowa Restaurant about a decade and a half ago based on the concept of serving French-inspired, fusion cuisine incorporating local seasonal ingredients.
With input from the brewers, carefully curated sake from the four breweries on the tour were served along with the main dishes. Locally sourced yamame trout, wagyu fillet, foie gras, and abalone were some of the highlights of the meal. Otowa left no doubt that sake could easily replace wine in a fine dining setting such as this. It was an excellent experience to end a day that seemed to go by all too fast.
The following morning began with a visit to Katayama Shuzô in Nikkô, a city known for its ancient shrine Tôshôgû. The UNESCO World Heritage Site is definitely worth a visit if you have another day to spare. President and toji (brewmaster) Tomoyuki Katayama also took on the added duty of tour guide for his family’s nealy 150 year-old brewery. Like Tôshôgû, the timber dominated construction of the brewery takes you back in history. Katayama presses his sake using the traditional, time-consuming kifune shibori method, in which porous bags of the mash are painstakingly packed into a large box and gently pressed little by little. Proponents of this method believe that the sake better retains its flavor.
From Katayama Shuzô we moved five minutes down the street to our last brewery of the tour, Watanabe Sahei Shôten, founded in 1842. The brewery is the number one producer of junmai-shu, which makes up approximately 90% of its portfolio. Energetic president Yasuhiro Watanabe also doubles as the brewery’s English-speaking guide. His enthusiasm is contagious. After the tour he took us to a tasting room where we sampled sake paired with Nikkô specialties yuba (the thin layer of skin that forms when boiling tofu) and rakkyo zuke (pickled scallions). While serving Watanabe and toji Akihiko Kobayashi demonstrate a sake drinking game that requires participants to roll a die and drink from certain cups or sing a tune.
Our final stop was for lunch with the two brewery presidents at nearby Inkyo Uwasawa, a restaurant and adjoining store specializing in pickles and miso. We were presented with a healthy, light meal of Shiru Meshi Kou (miso soup, rice, pickles). The Nikkô tamarizuke pickles served are made by aging vegetables in the liquid skimmed from the top of fermenting miso. Of course, the restaurant also sells local sake to accompany your meal. Completing the traditional experience, the tatami (woven straw) mat dining area is surrounded by large glass windows looking out on a tranquil garden.
This tour is very easy to endorse. Sake aficionados or those with an interest in learning more about the beverage will be delighted with the experience. All the sake on the tour is top-notch and each brewery has a different facet to present to keep you engaged. There is never a feeling of “just another brewery”. Foodies will also be thrilled with the chance to try a wealth of different flavors, not to mention the elegant meal at Otowa. Easy access from Tokyo makes the tour all the more appealing for those living in the capital area.
Official homepage: https://sakevoyage.com/
Article by Brian Kowalczyk
