Ultra Premium Moriizou Shochu

Description:Ninety minutes from the city by ferry and a winding two-lane coastal road is Mori Izo Shuzo. It is the source of one of the finest imo-jochu [sweet potato shochu]. Virtually all of the coveted 120,000 bottles Mori Izo produces each year are sold through a phone-in lottery. Fifth-generation owner and master distiller, makes imo-jochu by hand, as his ancestors did. The heavy smell of yeast hits you as you walk inside the brightly lit distillery, lined with 50 handmade clay pots sunk two-thirds into the floor. Each is more than 120 years old and holds 190 gallons. Seed malt and sweet potatoes in various stages of fermentation gurgle inside like cooking oatmeal. Some pots give off a sharp tinge of alcohol, as well as heat. Only ten farmers grow the kogane sengan sweet potatoes used exclusively for this shochu. The water is sourced from the distillery's 300-foot well that produces the area's prized Tarumizu spring water. And there's another key ingredient: "This building," or r