Zesty, vivid, sharp and bright. Dark rum mojito vibes. Minty, woodsy, high-toned notes with resonant bass tones of okinawan brown sugar. At 17%, this single-pasteurized, fresh yamahai honjozo drinks dense and moody, behaving like it belongs in a vintage rocks glass. Some would say it's the drier, crisper spiritual successor to

Gohyakumangoku raised in cooler northern Hyogo is the lesser-known side of Hyogo sake, and the home of the labor force that birthed modern sake in the south. Traveling together, groups of men left heart and home behind each winter to labor in the breweries of southern Itami and Nada, right near Kobe-Osaka. The wild-fermented, often aged and cedar-finished kimoto junmai's of the Tamba Toji guild--organized, skilled migrant sake workers-- defined the meteoric rise of sake in the 1700s.
But for all the southern Hyogo breweries like Kenbishi and Sawanotsuru, a few cropped up in the guild hometowns of the North, too. Thus Kasumi Tsuru was born in 1725 and persists today, notably specializing in the kimoto and yamahai wild-fermented styles of their guild heritage. It's a subtle gesture of local pride that they use local Gohyakumangoku rice here rather than the wildly famous Yamada Nishiki rice of the warmer south. 

USD : 16.5