Going out with sake and a piece of cedar board coated with miso and baked on the surface, he walks along a country road in spring with his friends, picking various wild plants and serving them to each other, eating them with miso and tasting sake. It is the story titled as "Nomichi", one of novels written by Koda Rohan who is a great writer of Meiji era. It describes a time spent outdoors enjoying the coming of spring and food to the fullest.

Rohan was said to have loved both Japanese sake and beer, and was also called Syusen(sake hermit) . I began to wonder what kind of sake Rohan would drink if he were alive today.

After some time, I found a sake that I supposed Rohan would enjoy. It is the “Kanagaso 2019 Vintage” from the Naohiko Noguchi Institute.

The brewer Naohiko Noguchi, who is also known as the god of sake brewing, chose Kanagaso-machi, Komatsu City, Ishikawa Prefecture, as the location for his sake brewing. The brand name “Kanagaso" is the name of the town.

Which town is it?　Surrounded by Mt. Hakusan, one of Japan's three sacred mountains, and the Sea of Japan, Kanagaso is rich in water and greenery, with about 70% of its land occupied by rural mountains. A small structure of a Kannon statue is located on the top of a rural mountain, and the area is blessed with the resources such as farm products, rare animals, timber, and stones. This unfiltered and undiluted sake is brewed from 100% Gohyakumangoku sake rice harvested from the rice fields near the sake brewery and the subsoil water from Mt. Hakusan.

Vintage of 2019 brewing means matured sake brewed from July 1, 2019 to the end of June 2020. The bottle label features a logo with the first letter of the hiragana “no” of Noguchi and a sake tasting cup with concentric circles.

Rohan would surely love this sake that expresses the natural blessings of Kanagaso-machi, where the brewery is located, and also enjoys the passage of time by storing it for four years. The pairing was bamboo shoots and rapeseed blossoms dressed with miso and ground sesame seeds. The inclusion of miso in this dish was a homage to Rohan's “Nomichi” .

KANAGASO Vintage 2019 Unfiltered, Unpasteurized sake

Ingredients :Rice (domestic), Rice Koji (domestic),

Distilled Alcohol

Ingredient Rice: Gohyakumangoku 100%

Alcohol content:20 %

Hard to tell from the photo, but it has a slightly light greenish-yellow color in the appearance. The aroma has a subtle Japanese apricot and plum-like acid aroma, and a grain-derived aroma like steamed rice. Rich attack and fullness, with a slight plum-like acidity on the palate same as the topnose, and gradually a bit toasty sweet like a brown sugar with the finish of refinishing and quiet.