Setchubai Umeshu (50 cl)

An umeshu that highlights the pure flavour of Niigata’s ‘Koshi no Ume’ plums with the sake that hosts them: a carefully brewed ‘Setchubai’ brand Futsushu sake.

A fresh aroma of plums, refreshing acidity and a beautiful, uninterrupted flavour for this umeshu to be experienced neat or on the rocks. It goes well with salami and nuts as an aperitif, and with cheese and dried fruit at the end of a meal. You can also enjoy it with a variety of dishes by cutting it with water or soda water.

Good to know: ‘Futsushu’ sakes represent the vast majority of sakes consumed in Japan. Although they do not have special designations such as ‘Junmai’ or ‘Ginjo’, this does not make them inferior sakes. They are sakes without the special constraints of designations, where the skill of the brewmasters is the key element that makes the difference between a good and a bad sake. Some Futsushu sakes have a seimaibuai of 60% and could be sold as Ginjo sakes. In the end, it is the producer who decides under which designation he wants to sell his sakes.

About the Maruyama Brewery

Founded in 1897, Maruyama boasts a brewery surrounded by rice fields as far as the eye can see, a lush natural environment where fireflies flutter in the summer and where there is regularly 1m of snow in the winter. It is in this beautiful, cold environment that ‘Setchubai’ sake is brewed. Any damage to the environment would prevent the sake from being brewed, so Maruyama also contributes to the maintenance and preservation of this indispensable nature.

One of the most important tasks in sake making is the preparation of the koji, which has always been done by hand at Maruyama, because even though it is now possible to automate and mechanise this process, human hands make it possible to produce more precise koji. Limited seasonal sakes such as Ginjo, Junmai, or Tokubetsu Honjozo as well as year-round Honjozo are prepared using the ‘Futakoji’ method, in small shallow boxes of about 1.5 kg of rice, giving the smallest annual production. For the Futsushu sakes that are sold all year round, the house uses the ‘Hakokoji’ method, using larger and deeper crates. The smaller and more manual the production, the more time-consuming it is, but this is the price Maruyama has decided to pay in exchange for high quality sake for its iconic “Setchubai” brand.