Sake Revolution Branded: Senkin Classic from Domain Senkin
Episode 67. Diving deep into another sake brand profile, this week Timothy and John look at Domaine Senkin, also known as Senkin Shuzo. This is a 200 year old boutique brewery located in Tochigi Prefecture, and was brought back from the brink of closing its doors forever with an idea to make more wine-like sakes with a pronounced acidity and sweetness - think German riesling. Two brothers, the 11th generation brewery President Kazuki Usui and his younger brother, and the brewery's toji, Masato Usui, decided to take the business in a new direction. Inspired by the wine industry's concept of Domaine, the brewery has a reverence for the most traditional, low intervention brewing methods and source only hand-grown, heirloom rice varieties that all grow within 5 minutes of the brewery. The water source used to grow the rice is also used to brew the sake. The Usui brothers combine the avant-garde with the traditional - and end up with a cutting-edge style of sake that is forging a new path in the sake world.