Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute is a Must Try Sake Brewery Near Kanazawa

The Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute is a Special Place

Although the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute offers a few experiences to visitors, with crucial booking logistics we’ll talk about in the next section, our visit was for a standard tasting and self-guided tour of the brewery’s on-site museum.

After arriving at the institute, a bit before our scheduled tasting time, we were allowed to walk into a second-floor museum that featured artifacts from Noguchi Naohiko’s legendary career as well as an ample amount of history to enjoy, with information on how he got his start, the Ginjo revival, serving sake at a Nobel Prize awards ceremony, and so much more.

One of the best parts about this gallery area was that it also had massive bay windows overlooking the production facility on both sides, giving a bird’s-eye look at a larger, slightly more modern sake brewery compared to others you may see around Japan. Although we did not see anyone working during our visit (no sightings of the Toji himself, sadly), it was still neat to see all of the equipment that Angie had learned about in her sake studies.

Our tasting was held in a sleek, modern room that could only be described as simple yet stunning. A wraparound counter seated guests (with only two others in our tasting), and at the far end, a massive window opened onto what we assumed were rice terraces and a forest beyond the brewery. During our January visit, these were covered in snow, and a passing snow squall made for an ambiance that could only be described as surreal (what luck!).

Our tasting consisted of five sakes (plus a few extras that may have been pulled out later on), including five Yamahai made from five different kinds of rice grown in different prefectures around Japan (most all at 50-55% polishing). Some were served cold, some we got to sample hot to see how the flavors change, and each was served with a unique bite of food to showcase an interesting pairing as well.

This was our kind of tasting as serious sake consumers, as we quite enjoy Yamahai style, and it was fun to work our way through different kinds of rice to see which one we preferred the most. Although we enjoyed them all, we picked up several bottles of the Yamahai Miyamanishiki to take home with us (however, doing a tasting yourself and figuring out your favorite is part of the fun)!

Sadly, our only real regret of the tour was that we had little opportunity to try other bottles beyond this flight and bonus pours that were offered, so when we got back to Kanazawa, we did a few more tastes at their standing bar at the train station to work our way through the rest of the portfolio.

But for as much as we liked this one, we really have to spend a bit of time explaining the details of how you can visit. This one can be rather confusing to book!

How to Get to the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute

If you are looking to visit the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute, you have two main ways to get there without a car.

First, the DIY option. This involves booking via the institute directly on the booking platform Table Check. Booking at Touan here typically allows you to join a group tasting, conducted in Japanese and English, which is what we booked, as well as a self-guided visit to the on-site museum overlooking the brewery.

Tastings here are reasonably priced and are conducted at fixed times throughout the day. Guests must make their way to the institute on their own, which for us meant taking a train from Kanazawa to Komatsu and then hiring a taxi at the station to take us to the institute. (On the return trip, the institute called us a taxi to take us back to the train station as well- allow for ample time for traveling both ways.)

While going this route may be the most economical option, we’d be remiss if we didn’t point out that the taxi each way costs just as much, if not more, than the tour itself, so while you can save quite a bit of money over the second option, the combination of train, taxi, and tour adds up in a hurry.

This is not a cheap day trip!

To book a tasting room experience, click here to read more.

• Note: Japan has strict drinking-and-driving laws. Do not book a sake tasting if you are driving. They have a non-alcoholic drink option available to purchase for drivers.

Second, the expensive tours.

One interesting thing about the institute’s website is that it links to different tour companies on the English and Japanese pages, which may be confusing for those researching this one.

The English versions of their page link to a tour company called Wabunka, which appears to book private tours and multi-day experiences that include a visit to the institute. These are, to be blunt, expensive, as the former private tour costs about 10x as much as the public tasting, regardless of how many guests you have (seemingly up to 10).  That said, the listings here suggest you may get a “brewery tour” included in the winter months. We did not book this one, so we aren’t sure how that varied from our self-guided option, but it is worth highlighting all the same.

The former doesn’t seem to include transportation as far as we can see, either, whereas the overnight tour option does include transit to/from the institute outright. That said, we have seen some tours provided on 3rd parties like Klook, but at the time of publishing this article, it seemed like they were not being offered- so be sure to check there as well.

To book a private tasting room experience, click here to read more. For overnight options with transfers, click here.

Now, you may be thinking this is all a big headache, and, to be honest, it kind of is. Thankfully, there’s a third option for those who are a bit more passively interested in sake- they have a bar in the Kanazawa train station!

For Everyone Else, Visit Their Bar in Kanazawa

We’ll be the first to admit that making your way out to the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute may not make sense for most visitors. We only visited because Angie is obsessed with sake, as previously mentioned, and we had time to kill, so we decided, why not? But we also recognize that not everyone else may be as into the effort as we were.

Thankfully, all you have to do is head to Kanazawa’s train station to find a standing-only tasting bar and store by the institute to put together more of a DIY tasting!

Although the tastings here did not come with the killer view and food pairings like we got at the institute (they do sell some bites, but they’re not the same), we did enjoy stopping here after we made our way back to Kanazawa to try a few more sakes that weren’t served during our tasting as well as buying bottles for the same price as what the institute was selling for directly. Only a few super-premium bottles were available only at the institute, which were out of our budget anyway.

In fact, I’d go as far as saying that if it wasn’t for the food pairings and the incredible view we got during our winter visit, I would’ve been just as happy visiting this bar, trying everything, and putting the difference in cost savings into buying more bottles to take home. That said, Angie loved the visit (I did too, if I am honest- the ambiance was hard to beat when snowing), and sometimes you just have to go to the source for something truly special.

We got just that at the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute!

But for future visits, well, we may just stick to the bar in Kanazawa! Click here to read more about this bar.

Overall, visiting the Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute outside of Kanazawa was a real treat, and, despite the effort to visit, we had a great time. That said, whether you should put the effort into visiting for a tasting versus simply visiting their bar in Kanazawa is up to you. The only incorrect decision is not trying any of their products at all- they truly are something special!

The Noguchi Naohiko Sake Institute is located at 1-1 Wa, Kannonshita-machi, Komatsu City in Ishikawa Prefecture.