Mitsukoshi Isetan invests in IWA, the sake made by former Dom Perignon chef de cave
An investment arm of the Mitsukoshi Isetan group has taken a stake in Shiraiwa, maker of the IWA sake brewed in Toyama by the former Dom Perignon chief winemaker, and agreed a capital and business all
On 28 September 2026, Mitsukoshi Isetan Innovations, the arm of the venerable Japanese department store group Mitsukoshi Isetan responsible for new businesses and investment, announced that it had entered into a capital and business alliance with Shiraiwa, the company behind the sake brand IWA. Shiraiwa is a brewery set up in Japan by Richard Geoffroy, the Frenchman who long served as chief winemaker at the Champagne house Dom Perignon. The size of the investment has not been disclosed. A major Japanese retail group backing a sake born of Champagne know-how is a story worth following for sake lovers in Europe, too.
Champagne-style blending, applied to sake
Geoffroy served as the fifth chef de cave (chief winemaker) of Dom Perignon from 1990 to 2018, and founded Shiraiwa in 2019 in Tateyama, Toyama Prefecture. Toyama lies in central Honshu on the Sea of Japan coast and is known for the snowmelt water of the Tateyama mountain range. At the heart of IWA is assemblage, the technique so prized in Champagne. Several base sakes of differing character are combined, aiming for a harmony and depth that a single sake would struggle to achieve. Sake usually puts the individuality of each separate brew in the foreground, so making blending the centrepiece is an unusual approach. The flagship IWA 5 is already served at Michelin-starred restaurants around the world and in the premium cabins of airlines.
Department store networks, and giving back to producers
Under the alliance, IWA will gradually be stocked in more of the group’s department stores, such as Isetan Shinjuku and Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Main Store, and through gaisho, the personal visiting sales service for wealthy customers. The partners also plan to expand through the group’s overseas stores and to create experiences combined with its travel and restaurant businesses. The two companies say that part of the resulting revenue will be reinvested in the next generation of makers and in producing regions. The backdrop is an industry in which overseas interest has grown since Japan’s traditional sake-making was inscribed on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list in December 2024, while the domestic sake market has long been shrinking and successors and labour remain in short supply.
Enjoying it in Europe
IWA could be a way into the world of sake for people already at home with wine and Champagne. To find it, look for the name IWA 5 at specialist sake shops and at fine restaurants with a sake list. When drinking it, you might try a wine glass, which lets the aroma open up, and a temperature that is not too cold, to follow how the flavour changes over time. Approaching it as an appreciation of the art of combination rather than the character of a single brewery may make it easier to notice how it differs from other sakes. With this alliance likely to raise its profile within Japan, it will also be interesting to see how IWA spreads overseas from here.
References and sources
- PR TIMES (Mitsukoshi Isetan Innovations / Shiraiwa): https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000012.000147473.html
Sources
This article was written by The Sake Wire editorial team, summarising the public sources listed above. Images are our own.
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