Akita dog label on a winter nigori sake: Itteki Senryo 'Shun' series

Sake meter value -15: a sweet, rich seasonal nigori

Akita Hakko Kogyo (headquartered in Yuzawa, Akita Prefecture), part of the Oenon Group, has announced the 2026 nigori sake in the ‘Shun’ seasonal series of its flagship brand Itteki Senryo. Akita is a snowy prefecture on the Sea of Japan side of northern Honshu, and Yuzawa lies in its south. The new product is a nigori with a silky, velvety texture. It has an alcohol content of 15%, a sake meter value (nihonshu-do) of -15 and an acidity of 1.0. The sake meter value is a guide to whether a sake is sweet or dry: the further below zero it falls, the more sugar it contains and the sweeter it tends to taste. At -15, this is quite a sweet sake. According to the brewery, gentle warming brings out a soft sweetness, while chilling tightens the flavour and makes it crisp and easy to drink. The label shows a snowy landscape and an Akita dog. It comes in a 720 ml bottle, with a suggested retail price of 1,230 yen (excluding tax).

What is nigori sake?

Sake is made by pressing the moromi, a fermented mash of rice, rice koji and water, to separate the liquid sake from the solid sake lees (sake kasu). Clear sake is finished by removing the fine solids (ori) that settle at the bottom after pressing. Nigori sake is pressed through a coarse cloth or similar, so that some of the solids are deliberately left in. Even though it is cloudy, Japanese liquor tax law classes it as seishu, the same category as clear sake. Similar-looking drinks include doburoku, which is drunk without pressing, and origarami, which is pressed in the normal way but finished without removing the sediment. They are told apart not only by how thick the cloudiness is but also by how they are made.

Where the name ‘Itteki Senryo’ comes from

Itteki Senryo was launched in 1974 and carries the meaning ‘a single drop is worth a thousand ryo’. The ryo was an old unit of gold coinage, and a thousand ryo is a byword for a great fortune. Akita Hakko Kogyo is the newest sake brewery in Yuzawa, and it has made its sake by drawing on the climate and natural bounty of a land of hard cold and heavy snow.

This announcement is for the Japanese market, and no plans for sale in Europe have been given. Even so, the figures for this sake are a useful guide when choosing a nigori in Europe. Check the sake meter value and acidity on the label or product description, and take a more negative sake meter value together with lower acidity to mean a sweeter, mellower taste. Before drinking, tilt the bottle slowly so the sediment spreads through the sake. It is also worth trying it chilled first and then warmed to around 40 degrees, to compare how the temperature changes it. As winter approaches, why not enjoy the richness and sweetness unique to cloudy sake, at different temperatures?