I was lucky enough to get invited by Sapporo City Tax Bureau for a day full of learning and fun in Sapporo Chitosetsuru Sake Brewery and then Yoichi Winery. It was cold Saturday Morning with strong blizzard, but it was not strong enough to stop 11 lucky foreigners from having a blast in Sapporo that day! Special thanks for Sapporo Kokuzei for hosting this event, as well as Mr. Carlin for being an amazing interpreter! And do not forget, If you need help arranging private tour in Sapporo, you can use our trip planner!

Sapporo Sake Tour in Chitosetsuru Brewery: Departure

It took a lot of will power just to wake up at 7 in the morning, and there was a strong blizzard that time. After getting a small rush breakfast of a cup of coffee and 2 pieces of bread, I immediately rushed to the meeting point in Sapporo Station. I was able to arrive 5 minutes before departure time of 8:45 am.

Brewery Tour in Chitosetsuru

Upon arriving in Chitosetsuru Brewery, we were greeted by some staffs in the first floor. We were lucky to have Mr. Carlin to be our interpreter, since all of the brewery staffs do not speak English at all (but they were very nice and welcoming!). We started the tour with some small introduction by staffs, and then we proceeded to the brewery, in which we learnt a lot about how to make traditional Japanese Sake! Interesting fact that I learnt was that all tour participants could not consume natto during the day of tour, since apparently natto bacteria would ruin the fermentation process of the sake! There was a part of the brewery that we could not see which is the quality inspection room; they really want to make sure the rice grains is pure and not tainted by outside environment.

Sake Tasting in Chitosetsuru

After learning about the sake-making process, in the brewery section, we went back to the lecture room for sake tasting! The staffs actually commented that foreigners are very curious; we asked a lot of questions! Back in the lecture room, we were greeted by some different types of sake from Chitosetsuru; including the limited edition one that was not available yet for public! The sake tasting was also done with food pairing; ranging from cheese, chocolates, snacks and some seafoods!

Sake Review: Personal Opinion

We tasted three different kinds of sake variant produced by Chitosetsuru; Namara Junmai, Shinjizogentei Jikomi, and Hatsujikomi Junmaiginjo. All of them taste amazing but personally I prefer the Namara Junmai variant, since it brings the strongest rice flavor without ruining the taste, with enough amount of sourness. This one is perfectly paired with pickled cheese. Again, this is my personal opinion and everyone has different taste! I was thinking about purchasing one myself but too bad it was not released yet. But hey, at least we got a free bottle of sake with our photo and writing stamped on it!

Yoichi Winery Tour: Departure

I really enjoyed the sake tour in Chitosetsuru brewery! Even though I was a bit disappointed with my Kanji writing skill, at least I had a blast in the brewery! After some photo session and goodbye, we hopped into our bus and proceeded to Yoichi town for the next round: winery tour and wine tasting. It was a rough weather, but thanks to the bus driver we were able to make it safely in the Winery!

Yoichi Winery Tour: Arrival

It took us around 2 hours to finally reach the next destination. I was sober enough not to sleep in the bus during the trip. It was interesting that everyone who was a bit shy in the beginning, started to talk with each other in the bus. Upon arrival in the winery, we proceeded to the winery section in which we learnt about the wine-making process in Japan, particularly in Hokkaido.

Yoichi Winery Tour: Wine Tasting and Lunch

After learning about wine making process in the brewery, we proceeded into the restaurant section for wine tasting and surprise lunch! We tasted around 5 different types of wine followed with 5-star lunch that we did not expect at all! We started with 5 different types of wine produced in Yoichi brewery as well as 3-types of cheese and compliment. We were then greeted with full course lunch ranging from Hamburg steak, salad, breads, as well as ice cream with wine sauce!