鶴齢 青木酒造 Kakurei Aoki Shuzo

Founded in 1717, Aoki Shuzo is the oldest sake brewery in the Minami-Uonuma area, boasting a history of over 300 years in the Shiozawa district of Niigata Prefecture—a region famous for its exceptionally heavy snowfall. While Niigata sake is widely renowned for its clean and dry (Tanrei Karakuchi) style, Aoki Shuzo delights enthusiasts with a remarkably diverse spectrum of expressions: the Yukiotoko series offers a crisp, dry profile; the Kakurei series delivers a rich, savory style (Nōjun Umakuchi) bursting with rice umami; and Bokushi presents a magnificent, ultra-premium Daiginjo.

The brewery also meticulously selects and handles a wide variety of sake rice—including Niigata's local Koshi-Tanrei and Gohyakumangoku, Nagano's Miyama Nishiki, and Hyogo's Yamada Nishiki and Aiyama, as well as Seto's Omachi—shining a spotlight on the unique charm of each grain, sometimes from a head-on traditional approach and other times from an unexpected, creative angle.

Despite being a small-scale, artisanal brewery, constantly evolving and leading Japanese sake culture, Aoki Shuzo took the world by storm with its unfiltered, undiluted sake (muroka nama genshu) in the 1990s, released ocean-aged sake in 2014, initiated snow-cellar (Yukimuro) aging in 2017, and launched the "Years Bottle Project"—a collaboration with contemporary Japanese artists—in 2019. Continuing this relentless pursuit of innovation into 2026, the brewery has completely renewed its custom-ordered "Limited Brew Series" for designated retailers, proudly introducing the brand-new "Fūmi Zekka" series.

Fūmi Zekka

Prior to this, following a decision by the National Tax Agency—which regulates the production and distribution of alcohol in Japan from a tax collection perspective—the requirement to state the "production date" on sake labels was changed from a mandatory rule to a voluntary option, effective January 1, 2023.

A major driving force behind this regulatory reform was the long-standing issue where sake was not being evaluated fairly. This was caused by a combination of two factors: first, the Agency’s official definition of "production date" deviated significantly from what the term commonly implies to consumers; second, erroneous myths regarding sake expiration dates had widely spread among domestic new consumers and even penetrated international markets.

To rectify these issues step-by-step, the traditional "production date" label first became optional. Consequently, each producer gained the freedom to voluntarily indicate details such as the rice harvest year, brewing year, or bottling date.For the first year or two, most brewers adopted a wait-and-see approach, watching the industry trends and the moves of their peers. However, Aoki Shuzo's decisive move at this juncture is expected to exert a massive influence on other producers across Japan.

In this groundbreaking Fūmi Zekka series, the traditional production date is completely omitted; instead, the Brewery Year (BY) is explicitly stated. Furthermore, it completely strips away conventional classifications (Tokutei Meishō) such as Daiginjo or Junmai Ginjo, removes the rice-polishing ratio (Seimai-buai), and dispenses with labels indicating whether the sake is unpasteurized (namazake) or pasteurized. Instead, each unique sake is beautifully crowned with the name of a traditional Japanese color.

As an increasing number of brewers are expected to follow this movement, we can perhaps say that the sake industry has officially entered a major paradigm shift—moving away from the specific designations and rice-polishing ratios that have served as the absolute benchmarks for evaluating sake since 1989.

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