On the nineteenth of June, 2020, sake from Mie received a geographical indication. It was the second occasion on which a whole prefecture had been designated as a single unit, after Yamagata.

Mie sits along the eastern side of the Kii peninsula. The Kii mountains and the Suzuka range run along its northern and western edges, and its eastern and southern sides face Ise bay and the Pacific. In winter, dry cold winds come down off those ranges, and they carry local names: suzuka-oroshi, and nunobiki-oroshi. In the Iga basin, further inland, the gap between the day and the night temperature opens up considerably.

The water for brewing comes out of that same geography. Snow that settles on the Suzuka range, and rain held in the Kii mountains, which is one of the wetter areas in the country, emerge as brewing water.

In the glass the umami arrives immediately rather than building up slowly, the texture is smooth on the tongue, and neither sweetness nor dryness is at all pronounced. The official description recommends drinking it with shellfish and with crustaceans, which is a specific and slightly surprising thing for a production standard to be saying out loud.