Matsuse Shuzo · 松瀬酒造

Ryūō-chō, Shiga Prefecture · Est. 1860

Some sake breweries buy their rice. Matsuse Shuzo knows who grows it — and has done so since 1988.

President Tadayuki Matsuse, now in his sixth generation of the family, began approaching local farmers in the Ryūō valley with an unusual question: would they be willing to grow sake rice, and grow it clean? No pesticides, no chemical fertilizers — just the rich soil of what was once the bottom of Lake Biwa, and water pumped from 124 meters underground where the aquifers run pure and iron-free. By 1992, every grain of rice used in the brewery was contract-grown. Several of those farmers have since achieved Shiga Prefecture's Environmentally Conscious Agricultural Product Certification — the strictest organic rice standard in Japan, developed specifically to protect Lake Biwa, the largest freshwater lake in the country.

From this commitment two standout products have emerged: the AZOLLA series, brewed from rice grown without any chemical input over the entire cultivation cycle, using wintertime flooding of the paddies to restore biodiversity and feed the soil naturally; and the Organic Wataribune, made from certified organic Wataribune rice — a heritage variety with deep roots in Shiga. Both are the kind of sake that takes years of trust between brewery and farmer to make possible.

At the heart of the brewery is head brewer Keizou Ishida, who arrived as a kurabito seventeen years ago and has quietly transformed the place. Ishida is as fluent in the world of natural wine as he is in sake — he has hosted Pierre Overnoy, Emmanuel Houillon, and other cult winemakers who made the trip to Ryūō out of shared curiosity. His brewing reflects the same philosophy: traditional kimoto preparation, no added yeast cultures, no shortcuts. "If you don't know about wine," says President Matsuse, "you won't be able to compete on the global stage." At Matsuse, that is not a marketing line — it is how the sake is actually made.