Shiraiwa K.K. is launching IWA 5 Assemblage 2 in Australia, created by former Dom Pérignon Champagne chef de cave Richard Geoffroy.

IWA 5 is made in Toyama, Japan with new and traditional sake brewing methods by Geoffroy, who spent 28 years at the legendary Champagne House.

Geoffroy (above), who left Dom Pérignon in January 2019, fell in love with Japan when he first visited in 1991. He made many return trips and was introduced to sake by Shinya Tasaki, a former Best Sommelier in the World. He was struck by its similarities to Champagne and a passion to create a sake of his own was born.

“The sheer ease and drinkability: there are not so many beverages on earth you can drink so easily,” he told Club Oenologique magazine. “To me, sake, Champagne and Fino sherry share certain elements. As far as food is concerned, what goes with one tends to go with the other two, and with their salinity, the last sip always calls for the next one.”

IWA 5 features a ground-breaking approach into sake making. Instead of using a single brew, it uses the art form of blending, meaning every single new release is perceptibly different from the previous one, while still being unmistakably IWA.

IWA was brought to life by a constellation of passionate and creative minds. Designer Marc Newson carved IWA into glass – he created the shape of the bottle by morphing traditional sake vessels and chose to finish it with an unconventionally dark, velvety sheen. Fused to the bottle as a thin layer of flat white glass, is a logo drawn by calligrapher Mariko Kinoshita in collaboration with designer Hideki Nakajima.

IWA is created in Shiraiwa, located in the town of Tateyama (prefecture of Toyama). In 2021, a contemporary kura – a sake storehouse – designed by renowned architect Kengo Kuma will open in the town.

IWA 5 Assemblage 2 is available exclusively via Sake Boutique, which Shiraiwa said is “to reflect the spirit of continual experiment, of steadily and creatively pushing the envelope”. It retails for $233.

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