Tatenokawa
Dassai Sake Brewery
Dassai 23 Junmai Daiginjo Yamadanishiki Sake
After a line-up featuring the likes of Aramasa, Yamamoto, Tatenokawa, and Ohmine, the Dassai 23 Centrifuge came off a little boring. As JT puts it, “It’s what I’d expect saké to taste like.” Then chef Alex added the darnest comment, “Doesn’t it remind you of soju.” Hahahaha.
Rich, round and heavy, with an almost sterile quality to the finish, it definitely wasn’t up my alley but I got to commend how lovely the silky textures were. Solid though - Dassai is Dassai, like how Dom is Dom. Reliability at scale. — 4 years ago
Tatenokawa
33% Junmai Daiginjo Dewasansan
#sakestudy has been quite a frequent undertaking ever since moving back to Malaysia. You see... We've got the crazy idea of refining our local rice beverage to the level of the Japanese. Gotta start somewhere so why not taste the best... Imo necessary if we wanna make the best. And it's odd here in Malaysia - the wine scene isn't one that I'd consider to be thriving, yet sake seems to be. While it's still small and niche, there's a growing number of fanatics... Think specialist sake bars that are packed out each weekend... Sake importers and stores who stock on iconoclastic breweries like Tatenokawa... Insane!
Here's another killer bottle from one of my favourite sake breweries. Compelling to say the least. Not dissimilar to their Seiryu in terms of profile - fruit driven and very fine. But the 33 definitely takes it up a notch with it's richness and complexity! Sweeter and powerful, threading-on-exotic aromas. But with finesse. The finish is crisp and so fine. Deceivingly long, with floral honeyed tones that just lingers. And the texture... Oh so silky... like 1.5k thread count for the tongue 🤤 There's a distinct umami core too, that I feel would develop if given more air. Sadly... Or not so sadly... another bottle that disappeared in no time at all. — 8 years ago
Tatenokawa
Junmai
楯野川 junmai daiginjo 80 — 9 years ago
Tatenokawa
Tatenokawa Komyo Dewasansan / Zenith Dewasansan 2026
Tatenokawa Komyo (楯野川 光明) Dewasansan / Zenith Dewasansan
Brewery: Tatenokawa, Sakata, Yamagata, Japan
Classification: Junmai Daiginjo
Rice: Yamagata-grown Dewasansan 100%
Polishing: 1%
Yeast: Yamagata KA + Kyokai 1801
ABV: 15%
SMV: −1
Acidity: 1.4
Amino Acidity: 0.6
Brewer description: Extremely delicate and transparent, with the freshness characteristic of Dewasansan. Despite the extreme polishing, the brewery says it retains noticeable rice flavor and volume, with restrained aromatics and a refined sweetness. This was Tatenokawa’s first 1% sake, originally released in 2017.
Tasted at Sake Day SF — 9/26/2026. Rating is limited since the same glass was reused throughout the tasting, making it difficult to get a truly clean tasting and accurate read on the aromas. Again as the other - this is polished to an extreme rate. I would argue solely for marketing. It’s good. It’s not amazing and nowhere near worth $2400. Even more annoying how many times I heard that in order to taste these two bottles. — 20 hours ago
Tatenokawa
Foo Fighters x Tatenokawa Hansho Blue Junmai Daiginjo Sake
The citrus zing is strong in this one! In chef Alex’s words, “Smells like someone’s cutting up some lemon in the kitchen.” Fresh, light, and crispy with a mild sweetness, this was lovely with oysters. Enjoyable energy here, even though the warmth of the alcohol does show through in the backend. Once more, Tatenokawa nailed the celebrity endorsement game - first with Pheonix and now with Foo Fighters. Talk about great taste in collaborations! — 4 years ago
Tatenokawa
Phoenix Junmai Daiginjo Sake
It isn't everyday that celebrity endorsement yields something this good. My first Tatenokawa and gosh... this has really gotten me interested in the brewery. Supposedly a "playful" junmai daiginjo for them, but it's really pulling off some intense complexity here. I can only imagine what their more serious bottlings entail. Damn!
Melon, fresh herbs, citrus, white flowers, yeasty notes, pebbly minerality, textured, somewhat sappy, delicate sweetness, refreshing acidity, long finish. Really elegant nihonshu here. Cool booze. Also glad that one of my favourite band's got great taste ❤️ — 8 years ago
Tatenokawa
Beautiful Mountain Torrents Shuzo Junmai Daiginjo
Tatenokawa
Junmai Daiginjo Dewasansan
Tatenokawa/ Tatenokawa shuzou/ Yamagata prefecture/ Omachi/ limited junmaidaiginjo — 11 years ago
Tatenokawa Brewery
In Loving Memory of Toshiro Kuroda Phoenix Nihonshu sake
Clean and crisp, moderately sweet, great with yakitori and fried food. — 3 years ago
Nigo & Pharrell
Storm Cowboy Sake
Another celebrity endorsement done right! The wine world's got a thing or two to learn from saké. Tatenokawa with Pheonix and Foo Fighters, and Ohmine with Pharrel and NIGO here - both churning our incredible brews for amazing artists!
Even though more acidity would have been nice, this was superb. Kabi-like, or perhaps even spatlese-like. Floral, fruity, sweet, and light-footed, it was super refreshing and drinkable. White flowers, melon, muscat, pears, almonds, and a touch of cream. Yum yum. — 4 years ago
Tatenokawa
Nigori Sake
Extremely smooth, as one would expect from an “18”. A bit sweet with melon and ginger candy flavors. — 6 years ago
Tatenokawa
Seiryu Junmai Daiginjo
Tatenokawa is fast becoming one of my favourite saké producers. Another finessed number. Lively, light, delicate acidity, very fine finish. Fruitier than the Tatenokawa x Pheonix bottling. Langsat-like flavours evolved into melon, pear, and peaches. Whoa, what a wine. In good ol' KP terms, a rice wine Kabinett! — 8 years ago
Tatenokawa
Harunigori Nama Junmai Daiginjo
Brewery: #Tatenokawa
Name: #Harunigori Nama
Grade: #Junmai Daiginjo Nigori Nama
Rice Variety: #Yamadanishiki
Seimaibuai: 50%
Prefecture: #Yamagata
16.5%abv — 10 years ago
Norman
Tatenokawa Komyo (楯野川 光明) Yamada Nishiki / Zenith Yamada Nishiki
Brewery: Tatenokawa, Sakata, Yamagata, Japan
Classification: Junmai Daiginjo
Rice: Yamada Nishiki, 100% Hyogo-grown
Polishing: 1%
Yeast: Yamagata KA + Kyokai 1801
ABV: 15%
SMV: −3
Acidity: 1.3
Amino Acidity: 0.6
Release: Limited quantity
Brewer description: Tatenokawa describes it as exceptionally transparent and refined while still retaining Yamada Nishiki’s rice umami, sweetness, rich aroma and breadth of flavor. The rice is polished for roughly 2½ months to only 1% of its original grain.
Tasted at Sake Day SF — 9/26/2026. Rating is limited since the same glass was reused throughout the tasting, making it difficult to get a truly clean tasting and accurate read on the aromas. So this is so overrated and just polishing for marketing sake. I don’t know how many times he said this was 1%. I got it. I know how hard. I constantly repeated how expensive the bottle is. I get it. That unfortunately doesn’t make the flavor amazing. It’s good. It is for the price. No. No way. That’s insane. $3400/bottle. — 20 hours ago