When Captain Renault (Claude Raines) famously asked Rick (Humphrey Bogart) why he came to Casablanca, Rick quipped “I came . . . for the waters!” Although Rick was “misinformed,” Richard Geoffroy, who recently retired after 28-years as the Chef de Cave (head winemaker) at Dom Pérignon, the world’s most recognizable ultra-premium Champagne, was not mistaken when he decided to make Sake near Toyama City. The water surrounding this town of about 400,000 on Japan’s west coast is special. The town rightfully proclaims it. In our hotel, the water pitcher carries a tag, “Taste the Difference. Toyama Water.”
According to my wife’s and my unscientific survey, performed even before we were prejudiced by the town’s proclamations, the water throughout town did seem to be notably crisper and cleaner. Upon our return to Tokyo, even one of our taxi drivers there raved about Toyama’s water. Toyama sits at the base of the “Japanese Alps,” a range of mountains containing 3,000-meter-high peaks. The locals insist that the run-off from the snow explains the purity of the water. Since water is critical to the taste and quality of Sake, it helps explain why Geoffroy chose Shiraiwa, a tiny village only 30 minutes from Toyama City and closer to the mountains, for his Sake brewery.
What’s harder to explain is why Geoffroy opted to start a new career making Sake in the first place. He explains that it’s a new chapter for him, a way of “not drying out.” With a touch of Gallic philosophy he continues, “It is really the concept for all of us, you know, not shrinking. In any case it is irrational.”
With his IWA 5 brand of super-premium ($200+ per bottle) Sake, Geoffroy is adding a new wrinkle to the that category, which is frequently defined by the degree to which is rice is polished – the more polishing the better, according to most working at the top tier. Polishing removes proteins and lipids (fat) on the outside of the rice which can lead to off flavors, leaving a purer carbohydrate core for a more pristine fermentation. To be classed as Daiginjo, the highest quality as measured by polishing, 50% of the kernel needs to be removed. But many producers go further. For example, Dassai, a renowned Sake brewer, bottles a super-premium one, Dassai 23, in which only 23% of the kernel remains. Geoffroy believes that polishing past a certain point results only in diminishing returns (they polish to 35%) and instead focuses on blending, just like he did in Champagne, for IWA 5.
Geoffroy uses the same basic process as other Sake brewers. They all polish rice, create a mash with koji, a mold that converts the starch in rice to fermentable sugars, add shubu, also known as moto (Sake starter) and yeast to start the fermentation, which converts the sugar to alcohol. What happens with the finished Sake is where Geoffroy and the traditional Sake brewers part ways. After making batches, most traditional brewers blend them to achieve consistency, then bottle and sell it.
Geoffroy makes multiple different batches of Sake and blends them for quality and character. He creates multiple batches, each with a slightly different personality by using three different kinds of rice, six different yeasts, and tweaking the process a little by varying the temperature or humidity of the koji or shubu. (He also uses two different types of shubu, a traditional one, and what he refers to as a “modern” one, which is only 100 years old.) Instead of blending Sake to achieve consistency, Geoffroy saves them individually in stainless steel vats, ending up with 20 or so unique Sakes, which he then blends to achieve something that he thinks is greater than the sum of its parts.
Geoffroy also saves some of the current year’s Sake for blending in future years to achieve the harmony and balance he seeks, just as he, and others who craft Champagne, save reserve still wine for blending. To be sure, many small breweries all over Japan make unique and distinctive small-batch Sake, and some are blending, but none to the extent that Geoffroy is.
Unlike most Sake, which can deteriorate with bottle age, Geoffroy is among one of the few who ages theirs in the bottle for 18 months before release, which he insists improves it. He believes there is something inherent in blending the components that allow the Sake to improve in the bottle. In short, he’s making Sake the way he made Champagne, and we all know how that turned out.
Geoffroy again shows his Gallic philosophy when he insists that the only way to find equilibrium in anything is by blending. He explains, “Weightlessness is achieved by balance. The only way to achieve balance is with blending. You cannot achieve balance with only one brew.”
Geoffroy explained that, in addition to the water, he liked Toyama because it was not known as a traditional Sake producer region, like Hyogo, Kyoto, Niigata, or Yamagata. Toyama has a reputation as a progressive city that would not cringe at this new paradigm. And, indeed, that turned out to be the case, for as, he exclaims with a broad smile, “I have been welcomed with open arms. So, I’m very happy and very, very proud to be part of a community and to be supported.” He has recruited local farmers to grow Sake rice organically for him.
The brewery, completed in April 2021, is not only a state-of-the-art brewery but an architectural gem as well. Designed by Kengo Kuma, the world-renowned Japanese architect (who also designed the splendid Toyama Glass Art Museum), the wood and glass building harmonizes with the surrounding rice paddies and mountains. The reflection of the cherry trees – the entire landscape – is visible as you stand in the brewery. Geoffroy did the brewing that first year because he felt it was important to learn the process, but now hires others to do that job. His focus, unsurprisingly, is on the blending.
Taking a broad view, Mathieu Glacet, who works with Geoffroy and is also French, lauds the fact, that is his words, “There is so much more freedom for Sake than you have for wine or Champagne in France. In France you have the rigid appellation system, you have the weight of tradition…you are really shackled. Whereas with Sake, as long as it is rice, koji and water, [you can] do whatever you want.”
The minimalist modern front label proclaims the IWA 5 brand, while the back label describes the year of the assemblage (blend). During our 2025 visit, we tasted three Sake, Assemblage 7, bottled days earlier, Assemblage 5, the current release and bottled in 2023, and Assemblage 2, bottled in 2020.
Tasting the sequence showed the distinct evolution of the Sake. The delicate and floral character of the recently bottled Assemblage 7 had morphed into a less fruity, but more complex Sake in Assemblage 5 without losing any refinement or freshness. Assemblage 2, showing more bottle age, had a white Burgundy-kind of complexity.
Geoffroy recounts how people tell him that the Japanese are conservative. He disagrees, pointing out that they are traditionists and the very nature of tradition is an evolution. “After all,” he explains, “the Japanese have been making Sake for a thousand years, while polishing rice is only a hundred years old.” He aims to show that blending and aging Sake can become a new tradition.
The Japanese have influenced French art over the centuries – think Monet. Now Geoffroy is trying to influence the Japanese. Time will tell whether he is successful.
. . .
June 10, 2026
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Photo Credits: Dee McMeekan