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Film: IWA / Shiraiwa K.K.

The Dom Pérignon cellar master who left champagne to make sake in Toyama.

Richard Geoffroy ran Dom Pérignon for 28 years. His sake is IWA 5, and it is six different blends. The number on the bottle tells you which one.

Choose a number See how it is made

Featured in The New York Times, Forbes and Robb Report. Poured in more than 40 three-star Michelin restaurants.

Shiraiwa brewery, ToyamaJunmai daiginjo, genshu720 ml · $235–$390$19.50 flat rate shipping

Which number should you buy?

Every bottle is the same 720 ml and the same design — only the blend inside changes. Higher numbers are the newer blends and they cost less. Lower numbers are older releases that are nearly gone.

Shipping is $19.50 flat, however many bottles you buy.

    Six numbers. Four things never change.

    The brewery, the rice, the polish and the fact that nothing is watered down are fixed. What moves between the numbers is which brews went into the blend, and in what proportion.

    3rice varietiesYamadanishiki, Omachi and Gohyakumangoku, grown in four places.
    5yeast strainsBrewed separately, then chosen from at blending time.
    35%rice polishingFor Assemblage 2 through 6. Assemblage 1 is 50%, measured by its least-polished part.
    0mlwater addedGenshu. Bottled at the strength it comes off the press.

    The only thing left to change is the blend — and that is the whole product.

    Rice ears in the field before harvest
    The Shiraiwa brewery seen across a rice field in Tateyama, Toyama
    The breweryShiraiwa, in Tateyama. Richard Geoffroy chose the site and Kengo Kuma designed the building.
    Steamed rice spread out to cool before koji is added
    The riceSteamed and spread by hand to cool, before the koji goes on.
    A brewer stirring a fermentation tank with a long pole
    The workEvery tank is still stirred by hand, one pole at a time.
    Close-up of the IWA bottle shoulder and cap
    The bottleDesigned by Marc Newson. Same bottle for every number — only the blend changes.
    Richard Geoffroy, founder and maker of IWA

    Photo: Marion Berrin. Courtesy of IWA / Shiraiwa K.K.

    Founder and maker

    Richard Geoffroy

    He was the fifth chef de cave of Dom Pérignon, and he set the direction of that champagne for 28 years. He grew up in Champagne, in a family of growers, and trained as a doctor before going into wine.

    Japan was not a late idea for him. It started with one trip in 1991 and he kept coming back. When he left Dom Pérignon in 2018 he did not start a sake brand from abroad and have someone else brew it. He moved to Toyama and built a brewery.

    “I loved my job at Dom Pérignon and felt truly blessed. But I became probably too comfortable.”Richard Geoffroy, to Forbes, March 2023

    Blending is the habit he brought with him — IWA calls Assemblage “the art form of blending” and its signature. Almost all sake is sold as a single brew. Geoffroy makes many separate brews — different rice, different yeasts, different years — and then decides how to put them together. That decision is the product. It is why each bottle carries a number.

    The numbers are not a ranking and not a vintage. IWA says each Assemblage will be “perceptibly different from the previous one, yet unmistakably IWA.” Assemblage 6 is not an improved Assemblage 2. It is a different answer to the same question.

    Choose a number

    Our own film, shot for the IWA tasting.

    The brewery he built: Shiraiwa, in Tateyama

    Toyama prefecture, under the Hida mountains. Mount Tate, one of Japan’s three holy mountains, is to the south. The Sea of Japan is on the horizon. The brewery is named Shiraiwa after the place it stands in, and it was designed by the architect Kengo Kuma.

    The Shiraiwa brewery in Tateyama, Toyama, designed by Kengo Kuma
    Three brewers spreading steamed rice inside the Shiraiwa brewery Rice terraces below the Hida mountains in Toyama

    Photographs courtesy of IWA / Shiraiwa K.K.

    Everyone under one roof

    The building puts production and reception in the same place. The people who make the sake and the people who visit it sleep under the same roof and eat around the same hearth. IWA calls the principles inclusivity, horizontality and community.

    Made on site, by hand

    IWA is brewed in Toyama by traditional methods, in a brewery designed for it. It is not contract-brewed and it is not blended abroad.

    It keeps changing in the bottle

    IWA says the sake keeps improving over time and can be cellared for years at low temperature. That is unusual for sake, and it is the reason the older numbers are still worth buying.

    Buy two numbers and taste them side by side

    IWA invites it directly — they call it a vertical tasting of IWA, a comparison of the successive Assemblages. Two glasses, same rice, same brewery, same 35% polish, different blending decision. It is the clearest way to taste what Assemblage actually means.

    The easiest pair right now is Assemblage 6 and Assemblage 2 — the newest and the oldest we still have. Shipping stays $19.50 whether you buy one bottle or both.

    Pick two numbers
    IWA 5 Assemblage 6, 720 ml
    Same bottle, same 720 ml, every number. Only the blend changes.

    The people who shaped it

    Kengo Kuma

    Architect of the Shiraiwa brewery. Known for the Japan National Stadium and for building with wood and local material.

    Marc Newson

    Designed the IWA bottle. IWA describes it as carving IWA into glass.

    Ryuichiro Masuda

    Toyama brewer, of Masuda Shuzo. He brought IWA into the local brewing world.

    Let it warm up in the glass

    Most people pour it straight from the fridge and stop there. IWA publishes three points for Assemblage 2, and the same thing happens with the other numbers: it does not just get warmer, it changes character.

    50°F
    10°C · from the fridge

    Restrained, taut and precise. Clean, a little vegetal and floral.

    57°F
    14°C · after ten minutes out

    Opens up. More persistent, more vibrant, a little spice and fruit.

    64°F
    18°C · room temperature

    Fuller and rounder. Mellow, mineral, savoury, and it keeps going.

    ~105°F
    40°C · warmed

    It also takes warm service, unusually for a daiginjo. Good with grilled meat.

    Three cooler points are IWA’s own published profile for Assemblage 2. The warm serve is from our own tasting.

    What the press said after tasting it

    Not the maker’s words — the writers’.

    “Geoffroy’s sake is ethereal and rich in unison; and leaves you wanting it more.”
    Akiko Katayama, Forbes, 16 March 2023
    “IWA 5 has the ability to age in the bottle, yet another parallel to the wines he used to blend.”
    June Lee, Tatler Asia, 13 July 2022
    “Powerful yet light, it won’t constitute heaviness on the palate and all senses are in harmony.”
    Alice Liang, The Drinks Business, 15 June 2022

    Also covered in The New York Times (27 February 2023) and Robb Report.

    Shipping and handling

    $19.50 flat rate

    Flat rate for alcohol, however many bottles are in the order.

    Expedited shipping available

    Choose it at checkout if you need the bottle by a date.

    An adult has to sign

    Someone 21 or over must sign for the delivery. We cannot leave it at the door.

    Secure checkout. Your order is in good hands.

    IWA is imported through Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits. It is not one of our direct-import bottles.