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Company Name: Shikina Distillery,
Inc.
Founded: 1917
Address: 2-48 Shuri Akata Town, Naha City
TEL/FAX: 098-884-5451 |
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The Shigure brand,
created in the cradle of awamori, has many regular fans,
due to its rich flavor and simply designed bottles reminiscent of
the olden days.
The town of Akata, at the foot of Shuri Castle, is the area where
the distilleries permitted to make awamori by the Ryukyu
Court were located. The area was thus the cradle of awamori.
Shikina Distillery was founded there in 1917, and it has played
a role in maintaining the old traditions and taste ever since. The
distillery produces some 54,000 liters of awamori a year.
It is very mellow and has a rich flavor reminiscent of the past.
The present owner, Kenji Shikina-the third to date-takes pride in
producing top quality kusu. He says that the distillery never
fails to store its awamori for aging, despite the small volume
it produces. Shikina's motto is to continue to produce superb awamori,
no matter how painstaking the process may be.
In the old days, local people bought awamori from distillers
by measure. The people brought pots and other containers to their
favorite distillery to buy liquor directly from the producer's pots.
There was no such thing as 'brands'. It was not until the postwar
period that liquor manufacturers began to bottle their products
and attach labels to them. For the first time, products were given
names. The Shikina Distillery gave its awamori the name Shigure.
Today, the workers carefully attach the labels on the pots by hand.
The label itself is simple and reminiscent of the past. The distillery
uses the words, 'Rich in old flavor' to describe its product. And,
true to its description, Shigure is refreshing and evokes
fond memories of the awamori produced in the past.
The Shikina family owns some extremely rare barrels of kusu
that are 100 and 140 years old. This liquor stored in 25-liter earthenware
pots has also been passed down from generation to generation, along
with the skills of awamori-making. The distillery will without
doubt continue to study hard how to make distilled liquor of vintage
quality by making new adjustments to fermentation temperatures and
developing new distillation methods. |
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