Sake and shochu from Kochi

What are Kochi's water and climate like?

Clear rivers such as the Shimanto, Niyodo, Monobe and Yoshino run through Kochi, and the ancient fudoki gazetteer records that the water here was used to brew sake for the gods because it was so pure. Some breweries also use deep sea water drawn from 370 metres off Cape Muroto, which gives a clean, fragrant sake.

Which rice and yeast does Kochi use?

Kochi long depended on other prefectures for nearly all its sake rice, until a sake-rice research group was formed in 1988. Tosanishiki, Gin no Yume, Kazenaruko and Tosaurara followed. Gin no Yume, released in 1998, is the prefecture's first sake rice and has Yamada Nishiki as its mother. The prefectural technology centre develops the yeasts, including KW-77, a cross between sake and wine yeast, and the aromatic CEL-24.

What does Kochi sake taste like?

The brewers' association and the tourism site both describe Tosa sake as light and dry. There are exceptions: the CEL-24 yeast gives a sweet-and-sour, low-alcohol sake at about 13 percent and a sake meter value near -15, and 13 breweries in the prefecture use it.

A short history of "Sake Land" Tosa

Most Tosa lords in the domain period loved sake, and the last, Yamauchi Yodo, and the Bakumatsu activists around Sakamoto Ryoma drank together too. At a banquet, guests face large platters of sara-chi dishes, offer cups from junior to senior and hand them back, and liven things up with hashi-ken, a chopstick guessing game.

Where are the breweries?

Breweries run from Tano Town in the east to Shimanto City in the west. The prefectural association has 18 members, in Aki, Konan, Kami, Tosa City, Sagawa, the Shimanto River basin and elsewhere.

Visiting and what to eat with it

Many breweries welcome visitors, some for free, so always book ahead and confirm. On tour days, the tourism site asks you to avoid natto so that you do not bring its bacteria into the brewery. Avoid driving if you taste. For food, sara-chi platters and seafood such as bonito from the Kuroshio current go well with a dry sake.