Who will enjoy this brewery
- People who want to walk around Gose-machi, where the shape of an Edo-period town survives, during a trip to Nara (Yucho Shuzo does not accept general brewery tours)
- People who want to try sake straight from the press, neither pasteurized nor diluted with water
- People who want to compare differences in rice variety and polishing within the same brand
- People who want to look for Nara sake at liquor stores in Nara, Osaka and Tokyo
About Yucho Shuzo
Yucho Shuzo (油長酒造) is a sake brewery in “Gose-machi” (御所まち), in Gose (御所市), Nara Prefecture (奈良県). It was founded in 1719 (the 4th year of the Kyoho era). Its main brand is “Kaze no Mori (風の森)”, and it also makes “Mizuhana (水端)” and “Takacho (鷹長)”.
The brewery does not accept general brewery tours. It also does not normally sell sake directly at the brewery (checked on September 30, 2026). Kaze no Mori is sold only at official partner liquor stores chosen by the brewery.
Gose-machi, a town laid out in a grid
“御所” is read “Gose”. Gose is at the southern end of the Nara Basin. To the west of the brewery, 二上山 mountain, Mt. Katsuragi (葛城山) and Mt. Kongo (金剛山) stand in a row from north to south, separating Nara from Osaka.
Gose-machi is a 陣屋町 (a town built around the lord’s administrative office), created at the beginning of the Edo period. On either side of a single river, a merchants’ town, “西御所”, formed on the west bank, and a town centered on temples, “東御所”, formed on the east bank. The layout of the streets survives so well that an Edo-period 検地絵図 (a map drawn from a land survey) can still be used today. The “背割り下水”, a waterway that runs between the backs of the houses, is also almost as it was then.
In Edo-period Gose-machi, pressing oil from rapeseed and other seeds, making medicine, making sake and indigo dyeing thrived. Yucho Shuzo, too, originally pressed oil as “油屋長兵衛”. The trade name “Yucho” (油長) comes from this. The founding year is based on an old document from 1719 recording the buying and selling of sake-making tools.
“Kaze no Mori”, born to be drunk locally
From the 1970s to the 1990s, Yucho Shuzo focused on mass production and sold much of the sake it made to large sake companies. It did not have a main sales outlet in its own area.
So the 12th-generation head, 山本長兵衛, decided to sell locally the freshly pressed namazake that usually only the brewery’s people could taste. Using “Akitsuho (秋津穂)”, a rice grown near the Kaze no Mori pass in Gose, the brewery released Kaze no Mori in 1998. The name comes from the Kaze no Mori pass (風の森峠) at the foot of Mt. Katsuragi. The current head of the brewery is the 13th generation, who took the name “長兵衛” on the occasion of the brewery’s 300th anniversary in 2019.
Kaze no Mori keeps to these two things:
- After pressing, the sake is neither filtered nor diluted with water
- It is released as a namazake (unpasteurized sake), without heat sterilization (pasteurization)
It has kept to this method since its release in 1998. In a freshly opened bottle, carbon dioxide produced during fermentation is dissolved in the sake, and you may feel fine bubbles in your mouth. After a few days the gas escapes, and the sweetness and umami of the rice, fruit-like aromas and acidity come forward. It is sold only in 720 ml bottles.
Choosing by rice variety and polishing
About 80% of Kaze no Mori’s rice is Akitsuho, Tsuyuhakaze (露葉風) and Nanatsuyu (奈々露) from Nara Prefecture. All of the Akitsuho is grown by contract farmers in the local area. Tsuyuhakaze is a sake rice (rice suited to making sake) that is now grown only in Nara Prefecture. Nanatsuyu is a sake rice developed in Nara Prefecture in 2024, the first to be developed there. The remaining roughly 20% is Yamada Nishiki and Aiyama (愛山) from Hyogo Prefecture and Omachi (雄町) from Okayama Prefecture.
Yucho Shuzo does not use the labels “ginjo” or “daiginjo” on any of its products. Whatever the rice polishing ratio, it labels them “junmai-shu”, sake made only from rice, rice koji and water. The rice polishing ratio is shown for each product. The rice polishing ratio (seimai buai) is the share of the rice that remains after polishing.
- 657 series — Rice polishing ratio of 65%. Two types: Akitsuho and Nanatsuyu
- 507 series — Rice polishing ratio of 50%. Half of the outside of the rice is polished away. Two types: Akitsuho and Tsuyuhakaze
- 807 series — Rice polishing ratio of 80%. 20% of the outside of the rice is polished away. Five types: Akitsuho, Tsuyuhakaze, Yamada Nishiki, Omachi and Aiyama
The brewery introduces “Akitsuho 657”, which continues from the very first Kaze no Mori, like this:
“With an aroma like melon or pear, its flavor, in which sweetness and complexity live together, is truly the taste of Kaze no Mori.”
「瓜や洋梨のような香り、甘みや複雑味が共存したその味わいは、まさに風の森と言える味わい。」
— from “Kaze no Mori” (風の森) on Yucho Shuzo’s official website
Layering Nara’s old brewing methods
At Bodaisan Shoryakuji (菩提山正暦寺) temple in Nara, it is said that “そやし水”, a liquid that uses lactic acid bacteria, and “bodaimoto” (菩提酛), a technique that uses it to make the shubo (the yeast starter: yeast grown to start sake fermentation), were born. Yucho Shuzo has adopted this technique in its own sake making. Within Kaze no Mori, all of the series with “ALPHA” in their names have been made with bodaimoto since the 2022 brewing. “Takacho” is also a bodaimoto junmai-shu.
In 2021, the brewery began brewing Mizuhana in the “Kyoho-gura” (享保蔵), a renovated building from the brewery’s early days. Based on old documents, all of it is brewed in large earthenware jars. In 2024, the brewery opened the “葛城山麓醸造所 (山麓蔵)” brewery among terraced rice fields at the foot of Mt. Katsuragi. There it makes “S Kaze no Mori” (S風の森) from Akitsuho grown at the foot of Mt. Katsuragi, polished only lightly (a rice polishing ratio of about 90%).
The brewing water is groundwater from the Katsuragi mountains, drawn from a well about 100 meters deep on the brewery grounds. It is very hard water, with a hardness of 250 mg/l or more.
Visiting the brewery
Tours and sales
Yucho Shuzo does not accept general brewery tours. It also does not normally sell sake directly at the brewery (checked on September 30, 2026).
As an exception, “GOSE SENTO HOTEL”, an inn in the same Gose-machi, has a once-a-month stay plan that includes a tour. For details and dates, please contact the inn (phone 0745-49-0854).
Finding Kaze no Mori in Gose-machi
- 東川酒店 (新地町, Gose) — A liquor store in Gose-machi and an official stockist of the brewery. Please check the opening days with the store
- French restaurant A+ à plus (フレンチ アプリュス) — A French restaurant attached to Yucho Shuzo. You can enjoy Kaze no Mori paired with its food. Course meals are also available. Please check the opening days on the restaurant’s Instagram
Getting there
Address: 〒639-2200 奈良県御所市1160番地
- By train: The nearest stations are Gose Station on the Kintetsu line and Gose Station on the JR line. From either station, it is about a 5 to 10 minute walk to Gose-machi
- Please check timetables on Kintetsu Railway and JR West. Some times of day have few trains, so it is a good idea to check the last trains for both the outward and return journeys
Opening days and tour arrangements may change. Please check the brewery’s official information before visiting.
Where to buy Yucho Shuzo’s sake
Yucho Shuzo’s sake is sold through the flow “Yucho Shuzo → official partner liquor store → customer”. To keep the quality of its namazake, the brewery has it handled only by stores that explain its character as they sell it.
Official partner liquor stores that sell Kaze no Mori
The brewery publishes a list of stockists on its official website. It lists 183 stores from Hokkaido to Okinawa, of which 158 carry Kaze no Mori (checked on September 30, 2026). We have chosen stores that are easy to drop in at during a trip.
| Area | Store | Address |
|---|---|---|
| Gose | 東川酒店 | 奈良県御所市新地町121 Open in Google Maps |
| Nara City | なら泉勇斎 | 奈良県奈良市西寺林町22 Open in Google Maps |
| Osaka, Umeda | 浅野日本酒店 UMEDA | 大阪府大阪市北区太融寺2-17 Open in Google Maps |
| Osaka, Shinsaibashi | グランセルクル 大丸心斎橋店 | 大阪府大阪市中央区心斎橋1-7-1 大丸心斎橋店本館B2F Open in Google Maps |
| Osaka | 酒のやまもと 大阪店 | 大阪府大阪市中央区島之内2-6-32 Open in Google Maps |
| Kyoto | にしむら酒店 | 京都府京都市左京区北白川久保田町3 Open in Google Maps |
| Tokyo, Ginza | IMADEYA GINZA | 東京都中央区銀座6-10-1 GINZA SIX B2F Open in Google Maps |
| Tokyo, Ginza | 銀座君嶋屋 | 東京都中央区銀座1-2-1 紺屋ビル1F Open in Google Maps |
| Tokyo, Shinjuku | 酒商山田 京王百貨店新宿店 | 東京都新宿区西新宿1-1-4 MB階 Open in Google Maps |
| Tokyo, Hamamatsucho | 浅野日本酒店 HAMAMATSUCHO | 東京都港区浜松町2-11-16 稲葉ビル1F Open in Google Maps |
| Tokyo, Asakusabashi | SAKE Street | 東京都台東区柳橋1-11-5 柳橋ビル1F Open in Google Maps |
For other stores, please check the list. The list shows which brands each store carries (Kaze no Mori, Mizuhana, S Kaze no Mori and so on).
Before you buy
- Whether a store carries the sake, and its stock, differ from store to store. Limited and seasonal products may not arrive, so please check with the store before visiting.
- Kaze no Mori has many products, and the rice and the rice polishing ratio differ from product to product. Please check the label for the type.
- For products whose label shows a storage temperature, please follow it.
- If you are taking sake home abroad: Bottles over 100 ml cannot go in your carry-on bag before security screening. Put them in your checked baggage, or buy them at a duty-free shop after security screening. Please check in advance what applies if you have a connecting flight, and the import limits of the country you are arriving in. → Travel tips
Brewery facts
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Brewery | 油長酒造株式会社 (Yucho Shuzo Co., Ltd.) |
| Founded | 1719 (the 4th year of the Kyoho era) |
| Representative | Representative Director 山本長兵衛 (13th generation) |
| Address | 〒639-2200 奈良県御所市1160番地 Open in Google Maps |
| Phone | 0745-62-2047 (fax 0745-62-3400). Hours 9:00–17:00 (excluding Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays) |
| Main brands | Kaze no Mori (風の森) / Mizuhana (水端) / Takacho (鷹長) |
| Brewing water | Deep groundwater from the Katsuragi mountains (well on the brewery grounds) |
| Official website | https://yucho-sake.jp/ |
| Brewery tours | Not available (GOSE SENTO HOTEL offers a once-a-month stay plan with a tour) |
| Sales at the brewery | Not normally |
| List of stockists | Published on the official website (183 stores, of which 158 carry Kaze no Mori; checked on September 30, 2026) |
| English support | The official website has English pages. English support at the brewery is not published |