Growing up near Zao Brewing Company, one of our own sourcing team members held that same unimpressed view, and so did one of her friends from kindergarten — even when that person ended up working for the brewery as an adult. But when our team member learned that Zao’s sake had improved, so did her opinion of it; today, it’s one of her favorite breweries anywhere. She returns every spring for the brewery’s open house, where nearly all of that year’s new releases are poured. When we started looking for delicious sake that hadn’t yet reached the United States, she didn’t hesitate. Zao was the first brewery she thought of — and the one she pushed hardest for.

By the mid-2010s, Zao had also shifted how it sold its sake, moving from anonymous wholesalers to individual retailers who kept it properly chilled, so the crew could finally hear from the people drinking it. In 2016, Otaki and a handful of colleagues in their 20s and 30s took that feedback and began developing sake under a new concept. In 2020, they built on that work and launched ZAO, a separate brand alongside the brewery’s long-standing namesake sake, written in English as opposed to the original kanji (蔵王). Its fresh, fruity aroma opens into a crisp, dry finish that rewards a second pour more than the first. In 2018, a modestly priced junmai from this new concept, brewed from ordinary table rice instead of prized sake rice, took third place in the junmai category at the Sake Competition, and Otaki was named one of Japan’s most promising young brewmasters.

Otaki’s success as toji does not mean this is a one-person story. This is a brewery remade by a crew that was young at the time, working under the tutelage of a seasoned brewmaster, as well as brewery president Kiichiro Watanabe. A former nursery school teacher with an unusually warm touch, Watanabe likes to say their camaraderie is “the best in Japan,” and this is evident in how comfortable the crew is, always trusting each other to experiment with new brewing methods. That mutual encouragement to always improve is why the sake keeps tasting better, glass after glass — and it’s why we chose Zao.