NV Takachiyo 59 Chapter 3 Aimachi Junmai Ginjo Nama Niigata (500 mL) 500 ml

A 370-meter container ship steamed into Los Angeles from Tokyo. Laden with nearly 19,000 TEUs, the leviathan was carrying just about everything under the sun, from Lexuses to lychees. But we were tracking just one unit, a twenty-foot reefer in which was buried a laughably small load—one that would barely fill the cargo space in one of the gleaming GX460s on board. 

It was 14 cases of one of the most exclusive sakes we’ve had the chance to offer: the Takachiyo 59 Chapter 3 Aimachi Junmai Ginjo Nama Niigata. 

Only a handful of cases of each Chapter release make it into the US. We take most of it—while MICHELIN three-star icons like The French Laundry and SingleThread claim the rest. Explosively aromatic and lush on the palate, it’s a cult-level sake that our expert Eduardo Dingler can barely find when he’s in Tokyo—and he’s well-known by every barman between Shinjuku and Shinagawa. 

Takachiyo produces a series of “Chapters,” highlighting different rice strains while keeping the production (water, koji, yeast) ingredients the same. Chapter 3 features Hyogo-grown Aiyama and Okayama-grown Omachi rice. It was made in a MINUTE quantity, and very few Americans got their hands on it. 

We’re thrilled to have Chapter 3—like the last hundred pages of a Murakami novel, it’s well worth the wait.