6th Generation Brewer Sato Jumpei's Resume
The Concept of “TATENOKAWA” ("TATENOKAWA" Newspaper 15/06/2015)
Welcome, and thank you once again for reading the “TATENOKAWA” newspaper. Up until the last issue, I wrote about how we went through a period of uncertainty over our sake brand.
It was a brand without any particularly easy to understand characteristics. And that is where we decided to start the brainstorming; by establishing a fresh concept and focus we would create a brand with characteristics that could be clearly comprehended by customers all over the world, not just back home in Japan.
Firstly we decided to stop adding alcohol before the pressing. The products in the line-up that were made with added alcohol such as SEIRYU GINJO and DAIGINJO YAMADANISHIKI were either discontinued completely or rehashed into Junmai types.
There were fans that were sold on SEIRYU GINJO and I personally fully understood the benefits of alcohol-added type sake. I could easily imagine facing all sorts of problems by stopping alcohol-addition: being chastised by customers and finding it difficult to take gold at the National New Sake Championships with Junmai type.
However, without hesitation I went with the Junmai-only concept.
I thought that if by lavish use of the raw ingredient the rice, we could help increase consumption of it and in turn contribute something to the local agriculture, isn’t that what sake should really be about?
"In 2010 “TATENOKAWA” went Junmai-only."
A clear concept was finally established.
However, surveying all the other breweries across the country, I realised that there were many Junmai-only breweries. How were we to set ourselves apart from them? And how could we make it easier to understand for all those people who did not know about the special-designation-sake category: Junmai Special Junmai, Junmai Ginjo, etc? I realized that we needed a concept that went even further, that could survive another 100-200 years.
6th Generation Brewer Sato Jumpei
