Mukai Shuzo Kyo No Haru Nigori

A dry, complex, and earthy nigori. One of the most intriguing and sophisticated nigoris we've ever encountered. It's punchy, acidic, and highly structured.

The Mukai Brewery is led by female brewmaster Kuniko Mukai, who is the eldest daughter in the Mukai family. Kuniko's family has owned and operated this tiny brewery since 1754. Kuniko-san chose an indirect approach to nigori production in the making of this sake: the sake is initially filtered to full clarity, just as any other clear sake is. Only then is the cloudiness introduced back into it through gradual and careful blending in of the remaining kasu. It was through perfectionist determination of blending (that went on until 4am!) that Kuniko-san settled on this balance.

This sake is interesting in regards to its importer as well: natural wine importer, Zev Rovine brings this sake to us. Given the lively and earthy characteristic overlaps with many wonderful natural wines, it's no wonder they took an attachment to Mukai Brewery's sake. Ironically, even in the extremes of non-interventionist sake brewing, sake is still a beverage of high-level technical manipulation. This is evidenced in Mukai's painstaking blending to produce a hazy sake, and stands at odds with the natural wine ideal of leaving sediment alone. I don't knock natural wine at all - I'm chugging Radikon while I'm writing this. Fulamingo wholeheartedly supports the increasing engagement of natrual wine circles into the world of sake! Furthermore, we at Fulamingo as well seek to showcase many sake that support ecologically conscientious farming practices (such as brewery-grown or co-op grown rice, organic farming, etc.), as well as low-intervention brewing techniques (such as yamahai and namazake, ambient yeasts, etc.)