Sake in Kyoto: The Fushimi Brewing District, Tastings, Brewery Tours, and How to Read a Label

Fushimi's sake comes from its water: soft, low in iron, rising from the aquifer under the district, and the reason breweries settled here in the 17th century along the canals that carried barrels to Osaka. It is one of the three classic sake regions with Nada (Kobe) and Saijo (Hiroshima), and the white-walled kura along the Horikawa canal are the most complete brewing streetscape in the country. Gekkeikan, founded here in 1637, is the largest name; Kizakura, Fujioka and a dozen smaller kura are within a ten-minute walk of each other.

The Gekkeikan Okura Sake Museum, in a 1909 brewery, explains the process with the old tools and ends with three tastings and a small bottle; it is the right first stop. Kizakura's Kappa Country combines a tasting room and a small brewery with a restaurant. The canal walk between them passes the Teradaya inn, where Sakamoto Ryoma was attacked in 1866, and boat rides run on the canal in spring and autumn. Fushimi Sake Village, a hall of tasting counters from a dozen local kura, lets you taste across the district in one sitting for a few hundred yen a glass.

Junmai means rice, water, koji and yeast only, no added alcohol. Ginjo means the rice was polished to 60 percent or less of its size; daiginjo to 50 percent or less, giving lighter, more aromatic sake. Honjozo has a little brewer's alcohol added for lightness. Namazake is unpasteurised and seasonal. Nihonshu-do, the sweetness scale, runs from minus (sweet) to plus (dry). Fushimi's soft water traditionally makes a rounder, gentler sake than the harder-water Nada style, which is the comparison a tasting counter will offer you.

Guided sake walks of three hours cover the museum, two or three tasting stops and the canal, with the guide translating the counters and pairing the sake with local snacks; USD 60 to 90 in a group. Many combine the afternoon with Fushimi Inari, two stops north on the Keihan line, for a full day of USD 100 to 120; the Fushimi Inari guide covers the shrine. Brewery tours inside working kura are rare and run in the brewing season by appointment.

Fushimi-Momoyama station (Keihan) or Momoyama-goryo-mae (Kintetsu) put you in the district; from Kyoto station it is 15 to 20 minutes. Tasting counters open around 10:00 and close by 17:00; the museum closes at 16:30. Drink water between glasses, eat the salty snacks, and remember the tasting pours are small but the daiginjo is 16 percent. The Kyoto food guide covers what to pair it with in the evening.