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Satoyama Craft Gin
Currently, a global boom is being seen in the unique "craft gin" that is produced in small quantities using particular attention to materials and manufacturing methods. Although there is a common understanding of the use of juniper berries (rat fruit), there is no clear definition, Nagano The prefecture has also created its own unique gin. Locally rooted sake breweries are also beginning to manufacture them.
Part 1: Spread from the scent Nagano The natural scenery and margins
Part 2 A craft gin with a pleasant fragrance that gives off a forest feel
Spreads from the scent Nagano The scenery and margins rich in nature - Fuyo Sake Brewery
Fuyo Sake Brewery Cooperative Association
Yoda Takanori, Director of Planning and Development, 6th generation brewery(Takanori)Mr. Miss.
Gin is one of the four major spirits in the world (gin, vodka, tequila, and rum) and is well known for its cocktails such as "gin and tonic." The EU is defined as "a distilled liquor derived from agricultural products with an alcohol content of 37.5% or more, mainly the aroma of juniper berries," and several types of botanicals (herbs and herbs) are generally used.
Among them, the highly distinctive items made at small distilleries are called "craft gins," and are characterized by their particular focus on materials and manufacturing methods, such as using eccentric botanicals. Since there are no clear regulations other than using juniper berry, in recent years craft gins with their own unique aromas and flavors have been born all over the world, and has become a huge boom.
Its popularity has spread in Japan as well, and according to the Japan Western Sake Brewery Association, domestic shipping volumes in 2020, increased by 1.95 million liters, despite the coronavirus pandemic, up 50% from the previous year. Exports, which were rare until 2016, have also increased sharply since 2017, with exports exceeding 3 billion yen in 2021, reaching the highest ever. It has grown to a new genre of spirit, with a 74% increase from the previous year.
Nagano One of the creators that attract attention isSaku CityThis is the brewery "Fuyo Sake Brewery Cooperative." For many years, he has been making sake and shochu, and since the previous generation, when various agricultural products were produced in place of rice under the policy of reducing rice, he has also been working on consignment brewing of shochu using agricultural products that are strongly localized in various regions of the country. Nagano In the prefecture, the mouse radish from Sakaki Town and chestnuts from Obuse Town are well known as shochu, a distinctive specialty made by the sake brewery.
Is it possible to brew brewing experience dealing with these diverse ingredients, the flexibility that has been adapting to the times, and to create unique, developmental sake brewing that makes use of our company's alcoholic beverages? With this in mind, Yoda Takanori, the sixth generation brewery, began developing a craft gin using kasutori shochu, which is produced by distilling sake lees, a by-product of his company's sake brewing.
"An advantage of craft gin is that it can be used as a way of expressing it. With the global market, gin is piping hot, and I thought it would be possible to utilize the know-how we have cultivated."
▲Yoda-san also paid particular attention to the manufacturing process, and made it with London dry gin type, which is distilled with all the ingredients in the base spirit.
縁あって日本におけるクラフトジンの第一人者・三浦武明さんに出会えたことからアドバイザーとして迎え入れ、まずはジンの文化や伝統、製法を勉強。 With the cooperation of many of our colleagues, we continued our project. " Nagano prefectureSaku CityWith the desire to incorporate the consistent story of making gin while also making shochu at the sake brewery, our goal was to pursue the true deliciousness of gin while using local ingredients.
Therefore, we classify the ingredients used into two types, and the ingredients that make them delicious as gin, and Nagano It is said that they have divided the materials that give a sense of regional character.
"I pay tribute to the culture of gin that is loved all over the world, and I actually walked through the area with Juniper Berries at the heart of it. Nagano I wanted to turn on materials that I felt could express my personality."
▲Express nightlife with visual images
Juniper Berry is the main character. As a supporting character that highlights this, it is said that local ingredients such as Kuromoji, Sansho pepper, and Japanese bamboo grass found when they entered the local forest were blended in, taking into account the balance. In addition, we have added apples that go well with the sake-derived ginjo fragrance that Kasutori Shochu has.
What Yoda wanted to express from this fragrance was Nagano It's a landscape.
"Gin is said to be a 'scent of fragrant liquor,' but I think craft gin is a 'scent of scenic liquor'. How can we express the region through scent? Nagano More than 70% of the prefecture are forests, but even in the same forest, the expressions differ between day and night. There are many refreshing gins like daytime forests, but I thought it would be interesting to have this gin express the slanderous and wannabe forest atmosphere at night that makes you want to explore."
▲ Kuromoji is a unique fragrance wood that is unique to Japan, with the woody scent of "YOHAKHU". When Yoda signed up for shochu production from a Nozawa Onsen village operator, he heard that there was a culture in which Kuromoji was soaked in shochu, and was shocked by the good aroma the moment he drank it, so he said, "It's one of the ingredients I definitely wanted to use."
This is how I have tried and tried hundreds of times. Three years after the concept, YOHAKHU was born in 2020, a craft gin made with 11 types of botanicals: juniper berry, coriander, cardamom, sage, Angelica root, licorice, clove, and other local characteristics.
In a time of year, I wanted this alcohol to be a place where you can cherish the space you have in your daily life, such as space. Also, my advisor, Mr. Miura, told me, "Gin is a play space for bartenders to make their own cocktails, that is, they have to leave some space left." "Enter (※)" of many people who helped us with the results of the margins. This kind of thought was put into the product name.
(※Relationship means that there is room for space and room for stretching that makes everyone want to be involved.)
"One of the happy words from our customers was, "I was born and raised the moment I left the seal. Nagano "The scenery came to my mind." Local people due to the COVID-19 pandemic Nagano This was an email from someone living in Tokyo who could not travel to and from. I felt that the hardships I had so far were rewarded when I could tell what I had imagined."
▲The Tokyo Whiskey & Spirits Competition (TWSC) 2022 won the top prize in the domestic gin category for shochu-based shochu. 500ml 6,600 yen
Furthermore, while selecting materials, Yoda has repeatedly entered the local mountains and forests, and has once again realized the charms of the local area, and has sharpened his ideas.
"There were many things that I'd always casually seen in the scenery that used to make gin, and my awareness of the region changed. When I was young, I admired the city and moved to Tokyo when I went to university, and inevitably returned to my hometown as my heir, but as I got older and interacted with many people, I realized that this was a great source of excitement, and by making gin, I've deepened my views and ways of thinking. I pack everything I've had to do with my life and thoughts so far into the gin that I've been able to complete in this place."
In the future, we will also focus on efforts to convey the culture of gin. Nagano Yoda says he wants to become a pioneer in the prefecture's craft gin. Meet traditional techniques, materials and people,Saku CityCraft Gin, which adds the creativity that "white space" creates in the natural environment and challenge spirit, is Nagano We will expand the possibilities of sake brewing.
Fuyo Sake Brewery Cooperative Association
address: Nagano prefectureSaku CityHiraga 5371-1
phone:0267-62-0340
http://www.fuyou.org/
Spreads from the scent Nagano The scenery and margins rich in nature - Fuyo Sake Brewery
Kurosawa Sake Brewery Co., Ltd.
Kurosawa Yohei, the master brewer
A forest of 500,000 birch trees spreads across the Yachiho Plateau in Sakuho Town, at the foot of Mt. Kita Yatsugatake. Kurosawa Sake Brewery Co., Ltd. is the town's only sake brewery located on the top stream of Chikuma River, and is renowned as the "best beauty in Japan." It is working to brew sake that makes use of the bounty of nature.
The brewery has also taken a unique initiative in order to produce the town's specialty products by collecting birch sap and botting it up and selling it in the local area since 2000. We have been working on making shochu for a long time, but in 2009, Kurosawa Yohei, who had just become a master brewer, began storing barrels with his older brother, Takao, who is now the representative, in order to make more distinctive shochu.
After that, they commercialized shochu, which has the aroma of barrels, and birch sap that brings out the sweetness of alcohol. Due to the Liquor Tax Act, this product is a new genre that is different from the shochu classification, so in 2019, we obtained a license to manufacture spirits in order to sell it.
▲The young birch leaves are collected several times a year. The sap is collected from 1,000 to 1,500 liters of sap over a week to 10 days during the springtime melting season, and is also used in bakeries and confectionery shops in the town.
And in 2020, we will face an unexpected coronavirus pandemic. Even in harsh conditions, I was thinking about using my previous experience and license to take on something new challenge, and was the production of craft gin, which botanically uses the town's specialty products.
"We would like to use the sake brewery in Sakuho Town to create products that can express the sake brewing in an environment rich in nature. To that end, we wanted to make it from local products rather than materials that can be ordered from other regions."
Yohei said this. Therefore, except for juniper berry, we used botanicals from the town, and in order to express not only birch sap, but also birch leaves, which we worked on manufacturing.
Furthermore, we use plums, mulberry, blueberries, and prunes that we use in our own ume wine and liqueurs, which we make in-house, with the desire to express our aromas with the fruits we have in-house. We also used fragrant sansho leaves that are picked in the forests of early summer.
This is how Kurosawa Shirakaba Jin was born. Distilled into botanicals, and then blended with each extracted product. Yohei says that the flavor changes not only depending on the way it is distilled, but also the balance and blending of the blend, so he found it difficult and the depth and fun of making distilled liquor.
"The gin made with birch leaves and sap is unique in its own way, but by adding other materials from the ground, we feel that we have created an interesting gin that is unique to us. Kurosawa Shirakaba Gin also received a gold medal in the liquor category of the Tokyo Whiskey & Spirits Competition (TWSC) 2022, which gave us confidence that the method was not wrong."
▲It is sold in vintage labels to help create more unique gins that evolve every year. "Kurosawa Shirakaba Gin" (500ml 3,300 yen), "& SOBA GIN (720ml 2,750 yen)
moreover, Nagano With the desire to make gin that gives a sense of the prefecture, it was roasted based on Kurosawa Shirakaba Gin. Nagano We also developed "& SOBA GIN" which uses soba fruits from the prefecture. We also add myoga and cedar leaves to go well with soba noodles.
"We have a belief that we would rather create sake that suits our meals, such as a cup of sake that can be layered together, rather than a gorgeous type of sake. We will expand this range and continue to continue to do so in the future. Nagano We would like to work on creating a variety of sake specialised in the prefecture and locally produced products."
We also convey the local charms by using unique sake brewing that is not bound by existing frameworks using materials unique to the land.
Kurosawa Sake Brewery Co., Ltd.
address: Nagano 1400 Hozumi, Sakuho-cho, Minamisaku-gun, prefecture
phone:0267-88-2002
https://kurosawa.biz/
*This article is information as of August 2022. Please note that the products we carry may have changed.
