Sake Sommelier Joshua Kalinan Launches Special Nanakanba 'Fire Horse' Edition Sake in Southeast Asia

If you follow the sake scene in Singapore at all, you will have come across Joshua Kalinan. The Master Sake Sommelier and 2018 Sake Sommelier of the Year - the first Singaporean to win the title awarded by the Sake Sommelier Association - has been a fixture in the regional drinks scene for years, curating sake lists and running masterclasses.

Together with fellow sake specialist Jack Lau - founder of sake importer Life & Liquor Pte. Ltd. - they have launched a limited-edition Junmai Daiginjo under the Nanakanba label from Shimane Prefecture’s historic Hikami Sake Brewery.

(Source: Joshua Kalinan)

Nanakanba (七冠馬) is one of Hikami Sake Brewery’s flagship brands, and the name itself is soaked in equine history. It is named after Symboli Rudolf, a Japanese racehorse of near-mythical reputation who, in the 1980s, became the first horse in Japan to win all seven G1 crowns 

Hikami Brewery was founded in 1712 during the Edo period, it has been operating for over 300 years in Okuizumo, nestled among the mountains of eastern Shimane Prefecture. But its strongest claim to technical fame is not simply age: in the 1960s, the brewery discovered a non-foaming yeast strain during brewing. This strain of yeast allowed breweries to use their tanks more efficiently, and the discovery has since been widely adopted across the Japanese sake industry. 

The release is called the Year of the Fire Horse Junmai Daiginjo, and it is, as the name telegraphs, timed to 2026’s Year of the Fire Horse (丙午, hinoe-uma) in the East Asian 60-year cycle.

The Year of the Fire Horse bottling uses two Shimane-origin rice varieties. The first is Saka-Nishiki, a sake rice whose name references the Saka Shrine in Izumo City. Saka Shrine is dedicated to Kusu-no-Kami, the deity of sake brewing, and is widely regarded within Shimane as the sacred birthplace of sake. The second rice is Enishi-no-Mai, a variety exclusive to Shimane Prefecture. The combination of two hyper-local rice varieties in a single bottling is a deliberate move to root the sake in Shimane’s terroir and brewing tradition.

The water used in brewing comes from Mt. Sentsu, described as medium-soft. 

This is a bottling selected and curated by the pair from Hikami’s existing brewing operation – a collaboration between two Singapore-based sake professionals and an established Japanese brewery, packaged and positioned for the Southeast Asian market.

Only 1,000 bottles of the Year of the Fire Horse Junmai Daiginjo have been produced. The sake is available through Life & Liquor and at Tensei restaurant on Club Street in Singapore.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team