Sake aged for six months inside a dam in Ibigawa, Gifu

Laying sake down in a dam corridor

Gifu Prefecture is an inland prefecture stretching north of Nagoya. Ibigawa is a mountain town in the west of the prefecture, upstream on the Ibi River. According to a report by the Chunichi Shimbun, on 28 September the town’s sake brewery Tokoro Shuzo and the roadside station Hoshi no Furusato Fujihashi raised sake that had been stored in the town’s Tokuyama Dam and Yokoyama Dam. The sake was taken in during mid-April, so it spent about six months inside the dams. At Tokuyama Dam, junmai ginjo sake had been lined up in a connecting passage inside the dam. Junmai ginjo is a fragrant grade of sake brewed without added brewing alcohol, using rice polished down to 60% or less of its original weight. Press photographs showed a brewery representative in the dam passage holding a bottle of “Toku no Yama”.

From a town revitalisation effort to “dam-stored sake”

Dam-stored sake began in 2024, when Tokoro Shuzo and a local sake shop launched it to liven up the town. According to the report, the sake came out of its maturation with a soft, mellow character. In general, passages inside dams are said to be little affected by the outside temperature and tend to stay at a lowish, stable temperature all year round. No light reaches them and there is little vibration. In Japan, attempts to mature sake using natural coolness, such as in tunnels, caves and snow storehouses, take place in various regions, and this project can be seen as part of that trend. The sake that was raised went on sale on 2 October at Tokoro Shuzo and the roadside station.

What European readers may want to note

This dam-stored sake is a limited local release, so it will be hard to get hold of the same bottle in Europe. Even so, you can find sake in Europe that shares the idea of “maturing slowly and quietly at a low temperature”. At specialist sake shops and restaurants, look for sake whose label or description says “jukusei” (aged), “chozo” (stored) or, in English, “aged” or “cellar-aged”. Tasting one alongside a freshly pressed sake from the same brewery makes it easier to notice how maturation changes the mouthfeel. Junmai ginjo closes up if served too cold, so one approach is to pour it into a white wine glass and enjoy the changes as it gradually warms up from around 10 to 15°C.