Type：Shochu
Region：
Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan
ABV：
40%
✪ Highlight ✪
🌟 Super limited Hong Kong limited edition of 60 bottles
🌟 Sherry barrel aging for 10 years
🌟 Angels' Share evaporation loss 12%
🌟 Unique traditional distilled liquor - Hongue rice shochu
🌟 Most important rice shochu production area - Kumamoto prefecture Kuma
Tasting notes: The color of the wine is dark amber like whiskey. It has sweet aromas such as candied dried fruit and toffee, with light woody and citrus aromas. The taste of the original rice is sweet at the entrance, and the sweetness of honey, caramel, toffee, etc. at the end, with a spicy feeling, and a long aftertaste. It is recommended to drink with ice cubes.
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Founded in 1894, Toyonaga Brewery is located in the Kuma Basin surrounded by the Kyushu Mountains, where the natural scenery is beautiful, and it is near the Kuma River Qingliu Basin, one of Japan's three major rapids. Surrounded by nature in this way, the brewery is using organically grown local "kuma の rice" and "clear spring water from the Kuma River" to pass down shochu brewing rooted in Kumamoto. Rice cultivation has been grown organically since 1990. Toyonaga Brewery's farm and 16 contract farmers produce rice with a cultivated area of 20 hectares and 60 tons, and jointly analyze the soil and produce organic fertilizers in order to always produce the best raw materials. In addition, the brewing of Moonlight nikoi is based on the traditional brewing that has been passed down for a long time, and we aim to express this wonderful nature of shochu by making the most of the five senses of a skilled brewer to make shochu that keeps pace with the times.
Region
Like "Scotch" brand whiskey and "Bordeaux" brand wine", Kuma Shochu is also one of the few brands named after place names and has been recognized around the world. The paddy fields all over the clear stream of the Kuma River are one of the few rice fields in Japan. High-quality rice is bred for brewing shochu. It has a refreshing taste that not only goes well with the dishes, but also adds to the deliciousness of the dishes. Kuma shochu is divided into "reduced pressure distilled liquor" and "atmospheric pressure distilled liquor". The pressure in the distillation machine and the method of low-temperature distillation, the aroma and aroma components contained in the liquor are directly extracted, and the taste is soft and light; The ingredients have a unique aroma and mellow taste, which will become more mellow after being preserved. There is also "barrel aging sake", which is to store the raw sake of shochu in wooden barrels, so that the aroma and aroma of the barrel itself can also transfer to shochu. The aroma and mellowness of shochu vary depending on the genshu distilled under reduced pressure and normal pressure and the type of barrel used to store the genshu. That is, the method of making Toyonaga Shuzo Oku-kuma.
Most of the rice used in Kuma Shochu is Japanese rice, including Koshihikari, Akita Komachi, Hinoko, Yamada Nishiki, etc., which are commonly used varieties. In order to be called Kuma Shochu, three conditions must be met: the raw material is only rice, the sake mash must be brewed from the groundwater of Kuma, and it must be distilled and bottled by a single still in the Kuma area.
Speaking of alcohol in Japan, the first thing most people think of is sake, but in fact there is another representative distilled alcohol in Japan, "Shochu", which is actually quite popular in Japan. Shochu is produced in many places throughout Japan, from Hokkaido to Okinawa, and the ingredients used are quite diverse. The most commonly seen types of shochu are: 1. Mai shochu (Honko shochu with the highest production in Japan, using ungerminated barley as raw material). 2. Taro shochu (using sweet potatoes as ingredients). 3. Rice shochu (using rice, rice koji). 4. Awamori (only produced in Okinawa, it is also the oldest distilled liquor in Japan, made with indica rice, rice koji and black koji fungus).
Moonlight nikoi adopts a single distillation process, using ball-milled rice as the main material, and only undergoes one distillation process. It is classified as "Hongemi Shochu". According to the Japanese Sake Tax Law, Hongomi Shochu is listed as having an alcohol content of 45% or less. It retains the flavor of the raw materials, and has a gentle, sweet taste that is easy to drink. Since shochu is made by distilling fermented liquor, it usually has a high alcohol concentration, and is also known as the "national liquor".
"Barrel-aged sake" is the method of making Toyonaga Moonlight Night Nikoi. The original wine of shochu is stored in sherry barrels for 10 years to cultivate an intoxicating color like amber, elegant aroma of sherry and oak barrels. Woody smell and unique glycol taste. Sherry barrels are second-hand barrels that have aged Spanish sherry wine, a grape-fortified wine with a strong aroma and a heavier taste. When it comes to Sherry, you must mention "Jerez", which is the most important and famous Sherry wine producing area. Due to the long sunshine time (more than 300 days a year) and the high temperature in summer, the grapes are very ripe, and the wine is very mature. The quality is quite high. Well-known whiskey distilleries also use the sherry produced here to moisten barrels, make sherry barrels and then age whiskey.
10 years of long-term maturation endows Moonlight with an attractive color like honey and sunshine, and also makes the original wine of shochu rich and mellow. Only this group of alcoholics wandering in the winery - The Angela's Share (angel's share), still make the winemaker helpless. During the aging process in oak barrels, the liquor is slowly volatilized into the air through the pores in the oak barrels, resulting in less and less shochu in the oak barrels! The volatilization process of liquor liquid is also a process of sublimation of shochu raw liquor. The slow material exchange between shochu and oak barrels makes the colorless and transparent shochu more approachable and pleasant, and it is easier to activate the taste buds of drinkers and enjoy a richer aroma.
