330-year-old sake brewery takes on cask-aged gin, due for completion in 2027

In Kashima, Saga Prefecture, in north-western Kyushu, Japan, Mitsutake Shuzojo has been making sake since 1688. The brewery, now led by its 14th-generation head, Hiroyuki Mitsutake, has announced a new project to age its craft gin Akatorii SAKE GIN in casks: “Akatorii SAKE GIN SPECIAL CASK EDITION”. Completion is scheduled for October 2027. The brewery presents it as a new way of enjoying a drink: savouring the very time in which the gin matures in the cask.

Why a sake brewery makes gin

Mitsutake Shuzojo is known as a brewery of sake and shochu (Japanese distilled spirit). Its sake “Mitsutake” and shochu “Makai e no Izanai” have won numerous awards in competitions in Japan and abroad. Akatorii SAKE GIN was created by combining the brewery’s distilling expertise with its daiginjo brewing know-how. Daiginjo is a grade of sake that is especially fragrant and delicate, made by polishing the rice to half its original size or less and fermenting it slowly at low temperature. To this the brewery added botanicals (plants used for flavouring) of its own choosing from Saga Prefecture, aiming for a gin rooted in the Japanese terroir. The head of the brewery says: “Precisely because we are a brewery that has lasted 330 years, we can take on a challenge with the next 100 years in mind.”

Gin aged in cask and delivered over three years

Gin is generally a clear spirit that is bottled without ageing in wood. Ageing it in cask adds woody aromas, colour and mellowness, giving a depth closer to whisky. This special edition is right in the middle of that process, and the gin, not yet finished, has been shown to the public for the first time. Also announced were a “time capsule subscription”, in which subscribers receive the maturing gin over three years, and a “cask owner scheme”, which lets people own gin by the cask. It lets you see for yourself how the same gin changes from year to year, and the brewery describes it as an experience of “raising a toast with your future self”.

How to enjoy it in Europe

Whether the subscription and cask owner scheme can be applied for from overseas has not been announced at this point. Even so, the story deserves the attention of gin lovers in Europe. Aged styles of gin have spread across Europe, including in the Netherlands, close to where gin originated, but cask-aged gin born from sake techniques is still rare. If you come across a Japanese craft gin, try it first at room temperature, neat, to appreciate the soft sweetness that comes from rice and the aroma of the botanicals. Then mix it with tonic, and the difference in aroma becomes clear. With completion due in autumn 2027, how the unaged gin differs from the cask-aged version is likely to be a point of interest for fans of both sake and gin.