Shirakawago Sasanigori: The Nigori That Started as Festival Doburoku

Most nigori is a style choice. This one started as a favor to a village.

Where the Name Comes From

Shirakawa-go is a village in Gifu, a UNESCO World Heritage site known for its steep thatched gassho-zukuri farmhouses built to shed heavy mountain snow.

The village holds a doburoku festival. Doburoku is the oldest form of Japanese sake, thick, unrefined, barely filtered, closer to a rice porridge than to anything in a bottle today.

The mayor of Shirakawa Village asked Miwa Shuzo to produce doburoku for it. That request is where the Shirakawago brand came from.

The Brewery

Miwa Shuzo was founded in 1837 in Ogaki City, Gifu, a place known as the City of Water.

The modern version of the brand, Sasanigori Junmai Ginjo, came out of a collaboration between the brewery and its exporter to make something lighter and more versatile than festival doburoku. It has since become the top-selling nigori in Japan.

What Sasanigori Means

Sasanigori means lightly cloudy.

Full nigori is opaque and thick. Sasanigori leaves far less rice solid in suspension, so you get a faint whitish haze instead of milk, and a much lighter body. It's the difference between cream and a cloudy apple juice.

It's brewed with Hidahomare, a rice native to the Hida mountains of Gifu.

Aroma: Newly opened flowers, cucumber, fresh spring water

Taste: Almost sweet on entry, with clear minerality underneath

Finish: Floral, clean

Why We Pour It

Because it's the nigori for people who find full nigori too heavy, and the entry point for people who've never had cloudy sake at all.

It's also the most food-flexible cloudy sake we carry. Regular nigori tends to dominate a plate. This one doesn't.

Pair It With

Handrolls, agedashi tofu, seaweed salad, steamed buns. Light things where the faint sweetness works as seasoning.

It also handles spicy edamame well without the heaviness a full nigori would bring.

Try It at Juraku

Shirakawago Sasanigori is on the sake list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side, in small and full bottle format.

See what's coming up at Juraku.