Moriizo Shuzo (森伊蔵)

Date of visit: 3 Jul 2015 - Day 7 of Kagoshima trip (photo only)

 

If you are shochu lovers, you may have heard about shochu 3M. It stands for the initial letters of 3 premium shochu distillery, Moriizo, Mao, Murai.

Moriizo is a very famous shochu brand which all shochu lovers would know and want to try at least once in a life. It is called a premium shochu, not only because of the gourgeous fruity aroma and refreshing round flavor but also the unavairability and the premium price in the market. Only the way to get it with a listed price is to participate in a monthly ballot organized by the distillery, but what I know is it's very difficult to even participate in it because of the busy phone lines. 

 

In fact, I have tried Moriizo long time ago at the time it was not so difficult to get before they are called 3M or phantom. In my memory, it was great but not that great to get it with a premium price for me....

 

Anyway, as it was located in Tarumizu City of Kagoshima prefecture and on the way to the airport from where I stayed, I decided to drop by though I knew they don't allow to view the distillery or sell anything there. 

 

It was a cozy shop with many Moriizo bottles for display only and they gave me a leaflet telling how to participatein the ballot. The distillery was located behind the shop, so I walked down to take photo. The door of the distillery was open a bit, but it was closed as soon as I took the photo (bottom left). This was my 5 min experience at Moriizo.

 

I actually participated in the ballot for Jul cycle after went back to Tokyo and will see how the result. 

 Website: http://www.moriizou.jp/

Nakamura (なかむら)

Date of visit: 3 Jul 2015 - Day7 of Kagoshima trip (photo only)

 

This was the last distillary I visited in this trip. Although I was rushing to the airport, I decided to drop them by for a photo as they were located 15min to the airport.  

 

Nakamura Shuzojo is a small distillery. Their focus is to make shochu by a traditional method with a traditional tools instead of moving to mass-production. Especially,  they prepare koji (rice mold) with 100% handmade in an old koji-muro (the room to make koji) made of stone. Imagine how hard work it is ? I assume the process is similar to Yoshinaga Shuzo I visited in the Day5. "Nakamura" and "Gyokuro" are their shochu brand. I will try them in Tokyo later.

Next time, I will officially visit them during the production season.

 

Kura website:  http://nakamurashuzoujo.com/ 

MAO (魔王)

Date of visit: 2 Jul 2015 - Day 6 in Kagoshima trip

 

MAO is a famous brand which is a part of 3M in premium shochu made by the distillery called Shiratama Jyozo (白玉醸造合名会社) . Other than MAO, they have "Shiratama no tsuyu(白玉の露)", regular sweet potate shochu, which is more popular to locals.

 

This is the main event of Day 6 of my Kagoshima trip because Shiratama Jyozo does not usually accept the visitor. My uncle living in Kagoshima made an effort and created the opportunity for me.

 

Shiratama Jyozo is located in Kinkocho, a small seaside town in Kimotsukigun of Kagoshima prefecture, about an hour drive from Tarumizu city where I stayed. Mr. Tamari, the president of Shiratama Jyozo welcomed us and brought us to a tour of the distillery where they just installed a new machine.

Surprisingly, the distillery was modern than expected and well machinized.

 

Accoding to Mr. Tamari, he, about 20 years ago, concerned about the future of the shochu because young people are away shochu, and launched MAO which has a very light flavor with no tipical strong sweet potate aroma when you drink on the rock. It was successful in the market and MAO became one of unavairable shochu in the market. With their strong advantage and focus on the product planning and developement, they also have a strong brand of barley shochu named "Genroin(元老院)" aging in oak barrel just like whisky, rice shochu blended with sweet potate shochu named "Tenchu(天誅)" and plum shochu liqueur. I thought he had a good foresight, a right concentlation and selection.

 

Kojika Shuzo (小鹿酒造)

Date of visit:  3 Jul 2015 - Day 7 in Kagoshima trip

 

Kojika Shuzo is based in Kanoya City in Ōsumi Peninsula side of Kagoshima prefecture.

After about an hour nice seaside and rural drive from Tarumizu City, my mother's home town where I stayed, I found a big factory in the middle of plain field.

 

Kojika Shuzo was established in 1971 as a co-operative partnership of small shochu distillars in Kanoya region.  "Kojika", the company name as well as the brand, means "small dear", which represents that young owners of shochu distillars in the region gather and co-operate.  

They also established Kojima Agricultuaral Association with local fermers to ensure the stable supply and quality of sweet potato from cultivation all the way to shochu production.

 

My school friend introduced Mr. Kodama working for Kojika to me, so I could have a chance to visit him.

Mr. Mizukami brought me to a factory tour followed by Mr. Kodama's welcoming me and providing an introduction of the campany. During the tour, I was always surprised by the size as well as modernized and macinarized factory (see some in the pictures). Believe me it is really "factory" than "shochu kura". There are many buildings and factories with big automated machines for the production generating 8,400kl of shochu a year. I was always impressed and It was off production season and very quiet, but all machines are full operation during the season. Wow! 

 

In fact, I have visited some big shochu distillars which do have factory tipe of facilities during the trip.

Those big shochu manufacturers have many types of shochu factories from mass production to handmade and usually organize a tour for a tipical "shochu kura" for handmade type of premium shochu making. Thus, this is the biggest factory I ever saw and I was very impressed by the scale.

 

Special thanks to Mr. Kojima and Mr. Mizukami for guiding me in the distillery!!

 

Top: Sweet potate washing machine  

Center: Automated koji mold making machine, Mr. Kodama(right) and Mr. Mizukami(left), potstill

Bottom: Stainless steel tanks

 

Kojika Shuzo website: http://www.shochu-kojika.jp/en/

Jikuya Shuzo (軸屋酒造)

Date of visit: 29 Jul 2015 - Day3 of Kagoshima trip

 

Jikuya Shuzo Distillery, founded on 1910, is housed in a small building at the foot of Mt Shibi(summit 1066m) in the north part of Kagoshima prefecture, about 90min driving from Kagoshima City. It is a small pretty village in the mountains with sweet potate and rice fields everywhere.

 

Mr. Jikuya (left in centre picture) and his staff welcomed me and guided the distillery. 

 

The first impression for shochugura (distillery) was pretty and cosy as you can see in the picture (right above). However, I knew later that the inside of kura was suprisingly well designed, compact and efficient .  

As it was an off-production season, the distillery was very quiet and no machines were working, but they explained the details of production process and equipment. I asked the guy what was the most difficult process and his answer was koji production. It was not really difficult, but very sensitive and tough for him because a temperature control is very crutial. It requires to keep it consistently about 35 degree Celsius throughout the 48 hour of koji production.

 

During the off-production season,  cleaning is an important work. People working for distillery clean all equipments and distillery from corner to corner perfectly every day before a new production season starts on September. Thus, the inside of distillery was very clean and tidy as seen in the pictures. 

 

 

Left Top: Koji Muro for rice koji production, Left bottom: Potteries for the first fermentation

Centre: Pot still

Right top: Kai for mixing moromi (fermented mash), Right bottom: Stainless pot 

There is a nice and cosy tasting roomr in the kura (distillery) and you will enjoy tasting their signature shochus at the end of the tour.

 

"Shibi no Tsuyu" is their regural brand. This shochu is made by koganesengan potatoes produced in Kagoshima Prefecture, balances sweetness and mellownes very well. My favorite is to try it oyuwari (mix with hot water) for a good at the sweet and dry notes. (I tasted it after I went back to the city.)

 

It was shame that I could not taste the shochu there because I drove a car. The problem is it's really difficult to travel a countryside without a car... 

 

Kampai!!

Murao (村尾)

Date of visit: 29 Jun 2015 - Day3 of Kagoshima trip (photo only)

 

After visiting Jikuya Shuzo, I found Murao Shuzo, one of 3M, is nearlly on the way to the next visit. Ok, let's enjoy a rural drive towards Murao. They were located in the middled of the fields and very pretty distillery with many trees. As I didn't have an appointment, I introduced myself coming from Singapore and asked a guy if I could take photos. He was a bit surprised, but readilly accepted to take photos. As it's off production season, the kura was very quiet, clean and tidy, waiting for the season. When I saw jar pots buried under the ground (right photo), I was really impressed because it was the pot that you will see on the label of the bottle together with the brand.

 

It is said that Mr.Murao is in charge of all the process of making "Murao" from materials procurement, fermentation, distillation to shipment by himself. Therefore the production volume is limited, and it is natural that it rarely get in the market.  

 

"Murao" is so popular, but "Satsumachaya" is the regular and main brand that locals love.