Inside Sake · tasting in the kura, 9 & 10 October — 15 places per session

Sake. Brewed in Vienna.
Viennese water, Piedmont rice, Japanese craft.
And the time it takes.

Rice, water, kōji, yeast.

Our sake begins with four ingredients and ends with time. Exclusively junmai: no added alcohol, no added sugar.

Vienna’s first kura

The first sake brewery this city has had, on Barmherzigengasse in the third district. Steamed, pressed and bottled by hand, a few hundred bottles at a time.

01

Organic rice from Piedmont

Bio-Arborio and Bio-Selenio, grown in Piedmont by Giovanni Vignola, one of the first to farm rice organically in Italy. A day’s drive south of Vienna, his fields are where every batch of Kura Wien begins.

02

Wiener Hochquellwasser

The city’s alpine spring water, from the mountains of Lower Austria and Styria, reaching Vienna by gravity alone. Moderately hard and very low in iron, its mineral profile is close to that of some of Japan’s classic sake-brewing regions.

03

Our Collection

What People Say

“This Sake has Namazake vibes, Nihonshu DNA and is a super versatile Sake for having with regional food. So impressed with their work and its truly under the radar…for now!”
Elliot Faber

Our Philosophy

Kura Wien is a slow thing in a city that has always known how to take its time - sake brewed the way it has been for centuries, from four ingredients and a great deal of patience, in a place that had never seen it.

Kura Hour

Brewing days, tastings and open doors at Barmherzigengasse 10. Kōji, moto, moromi, press - the season starts on 1 October, as it does in Japan.

  • Kōji

    Inoculating the rice

  • Cooling

    Turning the steamed rice

  • Kōji room

    Two days of warmth

  • Pressing

    Dripping under its own weight

  • Bottling

    A few hundred at a time

  • Tasting room

    Saturdays, small groups

  • Kamidana

    The shrine above the clean room

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