Miyashita Shuzo, a Century-Old Okayama Sake Brewery, Moves into Winemaking
Miyashita Shuzo, an Okayama sake brewery more than 110 years old, has obtained a winemaking licence and begun producing wine, including growing its own grapes.
A sake brewer has now started making wine as well. Miyashita Shuzo, a brewery in Okayama City, Okayama Prefecture, with more than 110 years of history, has obtained a licence to produce wine and begun growing grapes as its raw material. According to Nihon Keizai Shimbun, the company already makes beer, whisky and gin. It is rare anywhere in Japan for a sake brewery to produce such a wide range of drinks, and the move is attracting attention as a shift from sake brewery to “comprehensive alcoholic beverage maker”.
Turning Abandoned Farmland into a Vineyard
Miyashita Shuzo has leased about 9,000 square metres of unused farmland in the Makiyama district of Kita Ward, Okayama City, and named it “Makiyama Vineyard”. In rural Japan, the amount of farmland no longer cultivated is growing because of population ageing and other factors, and finding uses for such land is a major challenge. Okayama Prefecture is known as a production area for the white grape Muscat of Alexandria, accounting for more than 90% of domestic output. A region famed for premium table grapes is now exploring a new path: growing grapes for wine.
Why a Sake Brewery Makes So Many Kinds of Drink
In Japan, production licences are issued separately for each type of alcoholic drink, so a single brewery must obtain a licence for each one it wants to make. Miyashita Shuzo has previously produced canned craft beer using Omachi, an Okayama sake rice, as an adjunct, and whisky made from maize grown on abandoned farmland. The common thread is the use of local farm produce and land that would otherwise sit idle. The company is extending the fermentation expertise and community ties it built through sake to other drinks. With domestic sake consumption stagnating, it can be seen as one way to survive.
For European Readers: What to Watch
It will be some time before this wine reaches Europe, but the trend of “wine and whisky made by sake breweries” may well spread further. When looking for Japanese drinks, look not only at the brand on the label but also at the name of the brewery behind it. Tasting a brewery’s sake alongside its beer or gin can reveal differences in its ingredients, water and approach to fermentation. We will be following how the wine from Okayama, a famous Muscat-growing region, turns out to taste.
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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