The surreal landscape of the Akiyoshidai Plateau, located in Mine, Yamaguchi Prefecture, a 30-minute drive from Shin-Yamaguchi Station, is a vast swath of grassland dotted with jagged white stones that sprout from the ground like stegosaurus spines.
It sits above Japan's largest limestone cave, where groundwater flows over the terraced rock layers and absorbs minerals from the limestone, which formed from a coral reef roughly 250 million years ago. The high levels of calcium in the water, explains fifth-generation sake maker Takahiro Nagayama, lend distinctive notes of minerality to the sake he produces at Nagayamahonke Shuzojo.
Until relatively recently, the question of regional identity in sake has been largely unexplored. However, Nagayama aimed to create brews that would express the uniqueness of the terrain when he launched his signature brand, Taka, nearly 20 years ago. For the 44-year-old brewer, that meant focusing on the raw ingredients of water and local rice, rather than brewing techniques.