KIKUSUI CIDRE

Last Updated: 26 September, 2024

Apples. Orchards. Wine. These are usually the words that one expects to hear when talking about cider and cider making. But what about sake? And stranger yet, a sake brewery? At Kikusui Sake Brewery in Nagano Prefecture’s Iida City, the thought isn’t strange at all. As a matter of fact, it’s a matter of course for them – fitting perfectly with their desire to use local ingredients to produce local products that highlight the best of what the region has to offer.

Established in 1944 near the end of World War II, first as the Shimoina Shuzo Co. Ltd., the company began as a co-op of 37 individual brewers from as many breweries in the Shimoina district who joined forces out of necessity due to the ravages caused by the war. Working as a cooperative, they produced refined sake and other distilled spirits and stayed united even after the war had ended, immediately setting them apart from other sake breweries by sticking together. This also distinguished them as the only kura (warehouse) in the area, one providing a regular line up of 15 premium sakes.

In 1951, the company decided to change its name and the brewers agreed by popular vote on Kikusui Shuzo Co. Ltd. The three kanji for the characters Ki, Ku, and Sui represent the concepts of: joy, great length, and water; so the word’s meaning can be translated to: “long-lasting pleasure and happiness to people (through sake).”

Even now the company stands firmly behind its belief, “Good sake where there is good water.” Being located in the castle town of Iida, overlooking Nagano Prefecture’s Southern Alps, Kikusui is surrounded by some of the purest water sources in the country.

In 1956 they built their Matsukawa brewery in newly formed Matsukawa City (a merger of two local villages), and Kikusui continued producing a range of sake and spirits over the course of the next 20 years, steadily growing and expanding into other markets like sweet fruit wine in 1960 and then again in 1972, when Kikusui was granted wholesale licenses to sell every kind of alcoholic beverage. By 1981, they had started marketing their first apple wine under the moniker Ringo-namiki (Apple tree).

In 2002, construction of a streamlined version of their brewery was finally completed and Kikusui’s head office moved into what is now their current location, and emplys about 50 people. Since their inception to the present day, Kikusui remains the only sake brewery in the Minamishinshu, Shimoina district.

Cider did not play a part in Kikusui’s history until 2015. For much the same reason as other businesses in the area, an ongoing national decline in apple consumption resulted in an urgent need to explore ways to support and revitalize the local agricultural economy. Kikusui, with its array of products and ability to make whatever they wanted because of the assortment of licenses they held, thought it practical and most effective to add cider to their portfolio.

Kikusui’s core line up consists of three styles: standard, sweet, and dry. Each of their ciders is made from 100 percent local Minamishinshu (Southern Shinshu) apples, which are contracted from about ten local apple farms. Kikusui makes cider several times throughout the year depending on the apples that have been harvested to ensure all of their ciders are made fresh.

It took three years to get the numbers and balance to their satisfaction, and now Kikusui ciders are created from a blend of 15 different apples. The recipe seems to have paid off: each of Kikusui’s ciders medalling in the 2018 Fuji Cider Challenge – silver for the standard and bronzes for their sweet and dry. 

Until February of this year, all of Kikusui’s ciders were “force carbed” (injecting CO2 directly into the bottles) to maintain consistent levels of carbonation across the line. Now, with the help of some new equipment, Kikusui has also started making ciders using a technique called Méthode Charmat or the  “Charmat Method”,  where the secondary fermentation occurs in a large stainless steel tank prior to bottling. 

The main advantage of the Charmat Method is that it’s a less expensive means for pushing a wine (or cider) through second fermentation and is considered most effective on sparkling wines that are meant to be consumed young and relatively fresh. So far it seems the public has approved, with its initial batch of 200 bottles quickly selling out through pre-orders and reservations.

If you ever travel to Iida, you’ll have no trouble finding Kikusui cider for sale; their name and brand is synonymous with the city, which happens to be the location of the annual Nagano Cider Collection. And yet it’s comforting to know that for all their hard-earned success, Kikusui’s commitment to creating pure, high quality, local products remains unchanged. 

When inCiderJapan visited their brewery, we were surprisingly impressed by the contrasting balance of no-nonsense, low-tech, old-school methods for getting jobs done versus several pieces of costly-looking, cutting edge equipment. We were also greatly inspired, when touring their tasting room, to see displays of their “Terroir 35°” sake – Kikusui’s north latitude location, they say, is crucial to imparting that certain special regional je ne sais quoi into each of their brands.

But if for whatever reason you cannot make it, you need not feel disappointed. Kikusui is readily available several places on the internet, including their own online store. And whether you’re inclined to take your time or hurry through their sizeable catalogue of sakes, shochus, ciders, liqueurs, and wines, we’re sure that Kikusui will carry on being innovative and coming up with new items for the future.