A new sake designed to appeal to women is “a big success, more than we expected,” said Masaru Uchida, president of the Shimonoseki spirits firm.
Uchida said the company began planning the new sake, Saige Hyakka (meaning “beautiful moon and flowers”), last December after noticing that more consumers were starting to buy more beer and wine, less sake.
Sake, made from fermented rice, is traditionally produced in winter by a group of veteran sakemakers, all men, called toji. Women, historically considered impure in Japan, were not allowed to make sake, traditionally held as sacred. But “the time has changed,” Uchida said.
He said 3,000 bottles of Saige Hyakka, made by three women and a male adviser, went on sale in September at $12 a bottle. By November, the batch was nearly gone and Uchida was making plans to produce more this winter.
