NV HEAVENSAKE Noguchi Prestige I Ishikawa 750 ml

We’ve been privileged to offer some of Japan’s finest sake through the years, but there’s a tier that we’ve never had the chance to bring to Wine Access members. These are bottles as prized as any Grand Cru Burgundy—and since production is often even smaller and demand within Japan is fierce, they’re all but impossible to bring to the US. 

So we were thrilled to secure the HEAVENSAKE’s Noguchi Prestige I, a true crown jewel of sake, a collaboration between master blender Regis Camus and Noguchi Naohiko, the man the Japanese call “The God of Sake Brewing.” 

Noguchi Naohiko is a singularly obsessed figure, even in a culture known for focus and dedication. He started brewing at 16, and has retired (and then un-retired) three times—because making the world’s greatest sake is the only thing that he wants to do with his time. Every year, bottles of Noguchi’s sake sell for well north of $1,000 in Japan. 

This bottle of HEAVENSAKE is blended from Noguchi’s personal stocks—sake that has never been offered for public sale—and the results are jaw-dropping.

We could sit and just smell this sake for hours: It’s hard to list specific flavors because the intricacy is breathtaking—just when we think we have it pinned down, it shifts again—but it very much plays in the realm of tropical-meets-citrus fruit, with a kaleidoscope of flowers and spices on top of a creaminess and notes of crushed almonds. The sake is rich but dry on the palate, and would be an immaculate pairing with the best wagyu you can afford, or other rich, umami-filled foods like uni or top-tier prosciutto.