A Japanese Toji Dedicated to Making Sake In America For Over 20 Years

Our guest is Takumi Kuwabara who is the toji or brewmaster at SakéOne in Portland, Oregon.   SakéOne (https://www.sakeone.com/) is a unique sake brewery.  It was founded in 1992 by Momokawa Brewing in Aomori Prefecture, Japan, which was founded in 1889. SakéOne started sake-brewing in 1997 and since then, its sake has won multiple awards at prestigious competitions like the U.S. National Sake Appraisal and the San Francisco International Wine Competition.  And of course, a big part of its success has come from Takumi’s craftsmanship.   In this episode, we will discuss how Takumi studied sake in Japan and also in the U.S. after he arrived in the country in 2004, the unique terroir Oregon offers to make high-quality sake, challenges in making sake outside of Japan, how he sees the past and future of the American sake market and much, much more!!!