A Sake on Air News Bulletin: All Aboard the GI train to Kanto Shinetsu

0:22Hello and thank you for tuning in to another episode of Sake on Air, the world's first podcast dedicated to expanding the dialogue surrounding Japan's iconic beverages. I am, of course, talking about sake, shochu, and let us not forget awamori. I'm one of your regular hosts, Chris Shoes. In this episode, we're trying out a new format, which we like to call the sake on air bulletin. It's a bit of a work in progress, but we thought, you know, we're in a very privileged position here in Japan. And from time to time, some of us get invited to quite exclusive events, seminars, and workshops. And very little about these events is kind of posted online or reported about in English.

1:10And so we thought it would be nice to share some of these with you in the form of a short report or bulletin. Bulletin just sounds cooler, doesn't it? So in this episode, Well, I recently joined a GI-focused seminar held by the Kanto Shinetsu Tax Bureau in Saitama. Well, the event was held in Saitama. And it was about the region's GIs. Now, just very quickly, if you don't know what a GI is, GI, I'm not referring to the GI as in GI Joe. GI is actually short for geographical indication. And it's those little quality assurance marks slash regional identity marks that you see on bottles. Well, they're really a wine thing.

2:06That's how they kind of started. And you don't actually really see the words, the letters GI on a wine bottle, so to speak. But those of you that are familiar with wine may know, may have seen on the bottle, you see this sort of like in French, origine controlle, and then sort of like the appellation where the wine is from. Or maybe a simpler example of a GI would be something like champagne or tequila, scotch whiskey, prosciutto ham, parmigiano cheese. Those are all geographical indications. And it's basically a sort of an identity slash quality assurance mark that tells you that whatever you've purchased is an authentic representation of that product from that region.

2:55So yeah, I recently joined this seminar. And first of all, the Kanto-Shinetsu region combines the Kanto area of Tokyo, Shiba Gunma Prefecture which is just to the north Ibaraki Kanagawa Saitama and Tochigi Prefectures with Nagano and Niigata Prefectures it's a little bit complicated but basically it's sort of Tokyo the bit above Tokyo and then a large part of the bit above Tokyo and sort of to the west So it includes all those prefetchers. And so it was a seminar slash workshop. I suppose you could call it a workshop. Imada Sam actually attended this event as well. Well, I didn't know Imada Sam was attending until I just sort of glanced over to my right-hand side and there he was sat next to me.

3:57But not a surprise that Imada Sam would be invited to this event. There was a lot of people I recognized from the industry. So we all kind of assembled in this conference room, and the seminar began with an introduction from Kanto Tax Bureau Chief Minoru Nakamura and National Research Institute of Brewing Chairman Hisashi Fukuda. Their address included an overview of the objective of the seminar. So namely, to enhance understanding and awareness of the Kanto Shinetsu GIs. Because even in Japan, I think there are still a lot of people who don't really know, number one, what a GI is, number two, what the purpose of it is.

4:41And in the case of Kanto Shinetsu, which of course is just one of a number of GIs or regions which have GIs, I don't think there's a lot of awareness around that as well. So the idea was to provide a forum to network and, more importantly, to taste the region's sake. So there was a short explanation about GI. Kanto currently holds four sake GI and one wine GI. So we've got Ji-ai Niigata, Ji-ai Tone Numata, Ji-ai Nagano. Nagano has two GIs, so they also have Ji-ai Nagano Shinano Omachi. They're all the sake GIs. And then there's one wine GI, which is Ji-ai Nagano. So Mr. Fukuda, he laid out the definition of GI for wine and sake as the relation between the core ingredients.

5:42makes sense really doesn't it highlighting the comparatively larger role that water plays in sake and i found that quite interesting that he highlighted that i really was expecting him to focus on the rice i guess so for him to actually focus on the water i think that really just shows where we're at with the sake gi i think we really are moving in in sort of the direction of water where we're trying to focus with the sake gi because of course you know with wine it's all about the grapes and you would think that the you know the synonym of that in the case of sake would be rice but it can't quite play the same role and i don't really want to go into that uh in this particular episode but just you know rice doesn't perform quite the same role as it does um as grapes do in winemaking there are other complicated reasons why but yes so he was focusing more on the water, in particular, the mineral content, which varies across the world.

6:41But Japan, of course, generally has softer water. I don't know if you knew that. But yeah, internationally, I think Japan has perhaps the softest water in the world. I don't want to upset anyone in Scandinavia. I know they have quite soft water there. But so water hardness is basically the measurement of two minerals in particular. They only measure magnesium and calcium, so we're not talking about any other minerals. We don't care about what other minerals the water contains. And by international standards, Japan, like I said, is on the softer end of the spectrum. But harder water, such as the famous so-called otoko mizu, or masculine types, like miyamizu from the famous nada brewing area, leads to sake with less amino acids due to the role that magnesium and calcium play.

7:32They're sort of like nutrients for the yeast, essentially. So they speed up the activity of the yeast and they facilitate a faster starch to sugar conversion. Basically, in a faster fermentation, more amino acids are consumed by the yeast as part of its metabolism, as opposed to being left behind and forming taste in the final sake. So results of water analysis also indicate this, but basically there is a strong regional influence because, as I've sort of just said, basically the amount of minerals actually does affect the style. And it has to be noted, this is the case in a lot of the key wine countries.

8:23well. Perhaps not surprisingly, Fukuda next moved to the topic of climate change. Climate change is having a noticeable effect on the rice, in particular the starch. The average temperature difference in Japan from north to south, and I didn't actually know this, this is quite interesting to learn, is six to eight degrees in areas which rely on high diurnal ranges. So that means basically that the temperature between night and day is quite different. In those kind of ranges, they grow quite high quality rice. And the warming climate is leading to a phenomenon called hard rice, which is basically rice with a high ratio of longer starch.

9:07They call rice with long starch hard rice owing to the fact that it has lower enzymatic digestibility. That's quite a complicated word. Essentially all it means is that the rice is just harder to break up. It doesn't break up as easily in the fermentation. Another interesting takeaway is that softer rice leads to the creation of ethyl capoe, one of the ginjo aroma compounds or esters that gives sake its apple-like aroma. Fukuda shared that in experiments brewing with rice from different regions, they've been seeing an increased impact of the growing location since 2018. A similar climactic impact has also been seen in Japan wine, with an increase in linalool oxide, a perfumey herbal scent often found in many perfumes, actually.

9:57So it seems that aroma slash flavor is where we perhaps see the most impact of climate change. I wondered actually whether it might actually be a positive thing, in the case of Ginjo style sake, where more restrained, modest aroma profiles are sometimes desired. Fukuda confirmed something that's often been a bone of contention in the sake world, and that's regional differences in sweetness. No surprises here, but in general, but not exclusively, the regions with typically softer water tend to have the lion's share of the sweeter sake. So following this brief, but very informative introduction to the framework of Kanto Shinetsu region's sake and wine GIs, it was finally time to taste and hear from the producers themselves.

10:49So those three producers, well, basically there was two sake producers and one wine producer. So the two sake producers were Nagai Shuzo, represented by the CEO Noriyoshi Nagai, and that's from Gunma Prefecture, representing the Tone no Mata GI. And he brought along a Junmaidaginjo made with the local Yuki Hotaka, with the local Yuki Hotaka, if I can get my words out, variety of sake rice. And then the other sake brewery was Obata Shuzo and the managing director, Rumiko Obata, from Sado Islands. That's just off the coast of Niigata Prefecture. And she was, of course, representing the recently added Niigata Chi-ai.

11:43And she brought along her Miku, Jumai Daiginjo. It's quite a rare product. You don't see that one so often. made with the local Koshitande sake-specific rice. And last but not least, of course, there was one winery. I know this is generally a sake-focused podcast, but it's nice perhaps to give Japan wine a little bit of a shout-out. So Tanaka Winery, CEO K. Tanaka. This is actually quite a new winery, I learned. And he was representing the Nagano Wine GI with a Merlot from 2024. And on the other side of this panel, we had some experts sharing their perspective to the discussion. Saki stylist Ritsuko Shimada.

12:36Saki stylist is just sort of this new kind of position that they've created. Basically, sake professionals who are also experts experts in other fields, aiming to kind of help expand or rather promote sake to different audiences. The discussion was moderated by former National Tax Service chief appraiser turned sake advocator, teacher and CEO of Ikuhi LLC, Hidekazu Ishiwata. And he's quite a good speaker, I have to say, quite a good facilitator. So first up, the panelists began discussing the purpose of having a GI? That's quite a loaded question, to be fair. It's not an easy one to answer. I think the panelists did quite a good job.

13:24But sadly, I think it would be nice to have a bit more time to delve into this question a bit deeper. But so Nagai was the first to take the mic. That's the CEO of Nagai Shuzan. And he explained how the almost completely mountainous topography of Toninamata, which is home to four breweries, has created a close-knit community in which breweries have studied together since ancient times. The GI brings regional value creation, something that French AOCs take for granted. Although the area is not quite at AOC level yet, the GI provides a gold standard to aspire to in pursuit of this goal. So he's saying it's not just about rules or even branding, it's about providing that common goal.

14:10It's interesting, I never really thought about a GI like that, but I suppose that makes a lot of sense. And then Obata pointed to the increasing regional awareness that the GI provides. She'd recently been inspired to re-examine the island's role in their sake history, in sake history as a whole, sorry, and its potential role in the future. Everything that she's found points towards the island having an always played an important role in sake. She pointed out that Niigata, which is home to 90 breweries, has even devised its own unique sake-related fermentation superfood in the form of something called sakosuke, which is made by fermenting sake leaves with lactic acid bacteria.

14:53I thought I knew everything about Niigata, but I have to admit I'd never heard of this, so that was really interesting to learn. And they've also set up a college dedicated to sake where this particular superfood was developed. The GI, in a way, just feels like a natural evolution in the case of Niigata. And that kind of is how I feel about it as well. Those of you who don't know, Niigata is home to a lot of breweries, and it really is a sake brewing basket, so to speak, in Japan. Tanaka explained that the GI provided an assurance mark for exporting. This seems like the obvious benefit for me.

15:32I'm kind of surprised that the two sake breweries didn't really bring this up, but maybe because it is so obvious, they didn't mention it. Maybe they're just waiting for someone else to, but I feel that this is the obvious benefit. Okay, but then the question was, well, what purpose does a GI have for the consumer? Which, at the end of the day, is what we want to know, right? Well, Shimada is seeing a rise in the more discerning consumer who are looking for easier navigation signposts to explore sake. Food pairing is also becoming a trend. I was quite interested to hear this. I've never really kind of, well, there are various sake and food pairing events in Tokyo every now and then, but I didn't think the average consumer was really that concerned about the food pairing element of it.

16:22That was interesting to hear. The average sake bottle is a little hard for the average consumer to understand, and they simply cannot find the information they seek, she said. She suggested that GI perhaps provides a reference point. She reminded everyone of the importance of the story in branding. The story being how the ingredients, climate, and place internet connect with the product on the shelf. And in this context, GI clearly provides value for exporting in that regionality becomes a recognizable standard for consumers to navigate by. A pretty astute kind of reasoning. And I think in Japan, that's not really kind of a no-brainer in there, but I think I completely agree with what you're saying.

17:09Next up was the age-old conundrum that we come across when it comes to GI, and that's how do you leverage it? How do you actually use this thing? Can it really be used to create new fans of the beverage? Nagai talked about the extra tourism that GI is bringing in and that this in turn fosters local pride in the local produce. The brewery Sake Tour that they run is booked up for the next half year. That was pretty impressive to hear, I have to say. GI can be used as a marketing tool to put the area on the map. He added that GI also helps producers and rice farmers communicate better their value to the consumer.

17:54For Obata, GI helps them to stand out amongst the bigger breweries by giving sake by smaller breweries a more high-class image. I'm not sure whether GI really does that in reality, but that's an interesting idea that I hadn't thought about as well. The discussion ended with a cautious but optimistic conclusion that GI is still relatively unknown in Japan. Tanaka joked that when he first saw GI, he thought it read G1, and more awareness was needed. But with the right approach, GI did have the potential to be a game changer. And I'll leave you with that little thought nugget. I hope you've enjoyed this short report slash bulletin, and we hope to be bringing more of these to you in the future.

18:47But for now, thank you for listening to this episode of Saki On Air. I've been Chris Hughes. And as always, please be sure, if you've enjoyed this podcast, to rate us wherever you listen to your podcasts, whether that's Apple Podcasts, wherever you listen to your podcasts. And also be sure to follow us on Instagram at Sake on Air. And also be sure to check out our website, Sake on Air.com. Until next time, kanpai! Sake on Air is made possible with the generous support of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association and is broadcast from the Japan Sake and Shochu Information Center in downtown Tokyo.

19:29It is produced by Export Japan, and our team is Shuso Imada, Justin Potts, Arlene Lyons, Cindy Bissig, Chris Hughes, Chris Pellegrini, John Gottner, Marie Nagata, Miho Ota, Rebecca Wilson-Line, Sebastian Luan, and me, Frank Walter. Until next time, kanpai!