Shimizu Seizaburo Shoten· 清水清三郎商店

Suzuka, Mie Prefecture · Est. 1869

Suzuka has been known as Umasake Suzuka no Kuni — "the land of good sake" — since ancient times. The name appears in texts describing Princess Yamato-hime-no-mikoto's sacred journey to found the Ise Grand Shrine, and it has held ever since. Clear, cold water from the Suzuka Mountains, exceptional rice from the Ise Plain, and a tradition of brewing that predates the modern era: Shimizu Seizaburo Shoten, founded in 1869, has been making the most of this inheritance for six generations.

The brewery's ZAKU label is built around a deceptively simple idea: sake whose value is shaped not only by the brewer, but by everyone who sells, recommends, and drinks it. The name itself — 作, meaning "to make" — reflects that philosophy. The sake speaks for itself.

What makes it speak so clearly is toji Tomohiro Uchiyama, a native of Suzuka who studied biochemistry before turning to sake and has since become one of the most decorated brewers in Japan. His approach is precise without being cold: small fermentation vessels, all koji prepared by hand, brewing conducted year-round in fully temperature-controlled facilities that allow every batch the same careful attention regardless of season. His obsession with clean, fresh flavor is perhaps best illustrated by the IMPRESSION series — a pasteurized sake engineered through years of trial and error to taste as close to unpasteurized as technically possible. Still, bright, almost imperceptibly effervescent. Such is its sensitivity that it is only available at a select number of designated restaurants, where it can be stored and served under exactly the right conditions. "We put our whole heart and soul into making sake," says Uchiyama. "When it's finished, we don't want to have any regrets about what we should have done." In the glass, you believe him.