The story of sake, AKA Japanese rice wine, began some 2k+ years ago — but the story of American sake is only just beginning.
America’s appetite for the craft spirit is growing, and with it is an emerging collection of home-grown breweries, per Bloomberg.
But the budding domestic market, already worth $1B+, would not have been possible if not for one rice farmer in Arkansas.
In 1988, Chris Isbell, a fourth-generation farmer, made a successful foray into Japanese varietals with sushi rice. One of the first to do it, Isbell Farms became a major supplier in the US and minorly famous in Japan, drawing international tourists to rural Arkansas.
Before that, his family had grown table rice for decades.
In 2004, Takara Sake USA contacted Isbell looking for a domestic supplier of Yamada Nishiki, the “king” of sake rice varietals. There were none, but Isbell had experimented with it, and set aside 5 acres.
By the late 2010s, American craft spirits were popularizing and sake was folding into the mix. Increasingly approached by upstart breweries, Isbell decided to double down on the coveted strain, dedicating more acreage to it.
Isbell’s bet has paid off — today, it is the leading US producer of sake rice, with 30% of its acreage now devoted to the strain, and recently started milling to help new breweries get in on the action.
Even Japan is betting on the US market: In late 2023, premium Japanese sake label Dassai Blue opened its first US outlet, an $85m, 55k-square-foot brewery in Upstate New York, and 80% of its rice comes from Isbell Farms.
Still, Japanese sake rice is considered superior. Isbell, though, is working to change that.
BTW: Interested in becoming a sake sommelier? Arkansas-based Origami Sake, launched in 2021 and already America’s largest US-owned sake brewery, is looking to open a sake school at the University of Arkansas.