Katsuaki Yamamoto (Toji)
There are few more exciting sake brewers in Japan right now than Katsuki Yamamoto. His skill, passion and work ethic show in the fine sake he produces. Yamamoto-san until last year was Toji [Master Brewer] at Fujiichi Shuzo located in a small town called Inazawa just north-west of Nagoya.
Founded in 1870 Fujiichi Shuzo has a long history of sake production, however in the 80’s & 90’s their fortunes changed and the demand for their products diminished as did many other quality-driven brewers during that time. Fast forward to 2012 and Yamamoto-san took over as Toji moving his family from western Japan to take on the role. In the first year of working at Fujiichi Yamamoto-san developed the Kikutaka range. His concept in creating this brand was to marry the rice type with the yeast strain depending on the quality of the rice sourced each year. He believes that if you concentrate on making good Koji and understand the intricacies of the rice grown in that season you can make exceptional sake and exceptional sake he does make.
With this range of products under the Kikutaka label Yamamoto-san concentrates on creating sake with a lot of umami and acidity. This is achieved by meticulous work in the Koji room, where he strives to have every individual grain of rice fully coated in pristine Koji coating before being used in production. This level of care and work ethic has ensured the ‘Kikutaka’ brand as being one of the most sort after in Japan, regularly selling out within weeks of release.
We have been lucky enough to import these wonderful sake to Australia since 2015, being the first export market for the Kikutaka brand. These are sensational products in very limited supply.