Kaze no Mori Sake: Nara’s Innovative Approach to Fresh, Unfiltered Nihonshu

Open a well-chilled bottle of Kaze no Mori sake, and the first sip may prickle gently. It feels more like a lively young white wine than a sparkling drink. However, nobody added that gas. Instead, it is left over from fermentation and stays dissolved in this unpasteurized sake from Gose in Nara Prefecture. Yucho Shuzo has made Kaze no Mori since 1998, using mostly Nara rice and minimal handling after pressing. Its labels also carry numbers such as 807, 657 and 507. Those numbers do not rank quality. Instead, the first two digits show how much of each rice grain remains after polishing. TOCWhat Is Kaze no Mori Sake? Kaze no Mori (風の森) is a junmai sake brand made by Yucho Shuzo in Gose, Nara. For its core range, the brewery skips filtration and added water after pressing, and it does not pasteurize. As a result, some bottles keep a light prickle of natural fermentation gas when first opened. Quick Facts: Kaze no Mori SakeJapanese name風の森 (Kaze no Mori, literally “forest of wind”)BreweryYucho Shuzo (油長酒造), Gose, Nara PrefectureBrand launched1998 (the brewery’s official founding year is 1719)Name originKaze no Mori Pass, a mountain pass in GoseCore styleMuroka (no filtration after pres...