Everything we make begins with four ingredients and ends with time. Junmai only: no added alcohol, no added sugar, nothing taken out.
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
Bio-Arborio and Bio-Selenio, grown in Piemonte by Giovanni Vignola, a pioneer of organic rice farming in Italy. A day’s drive south of Vienna, his fields are where every batch of Kura Wien begins.
02
The city’s alpine spring water, from the mountains of Lower Austria and Styria, reaching Vienna by gravity alone. Moderately hard and exceptionally low in iron, its mineral profile sits remarkably close to the water of Japan’s classic brewing regions.
03
Kinshachi 1873 金鯱
Junmai Namagenshu. Unpasteurised, undiluted, unfiltered.
0,75 l · 16.5% vol · Arborio, 90% polished
Midorishachi 緑鯱
Savoury and food-friendly, with toasted cereal and roasted nut.
0,375 l · 15% vol · Arborio
Aoshachi 青鯱
Our summer sake. Fresh, fruity, gently aromatic.
0,375 l · 15% vol · Selenio
Marumero マルメロ
Aged sake, macerated with quince.
0,375 l · 12.5% vol · very limited
Kappa 河童
Aged sake, a blend of three to five years.
0,375 l · 16% vol · Arborio
Bakeneko 化け猫
Our own distillate, drawn from fresh sake kasu.
0,375 l · 40% vol · Arborio
“A Sake like a Beatles song.”
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 three ingredients and a great deal of patience, in a place that had never seen it.
Brewing days, masterclasses 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
