The pandemic that we are suffering through has caused so many fabulous businesses to disappear and forever changed the landscape of the business world. Most people would never even consider a startup company in this challenging atmosphere with all the uncertainties that they would be facing.
This is exactly what Paul Dohrenwend has done with Safu Sake Co. He created a true Japanese high-end sake from the Oita Prefecture on Kyushu Island while living in San Diego and coordinating his team using Zoom and LinkedIn.
Paul was at the Wharton School in San Francisco when he founded the company. The inspiration came when he went on a trip with five friends to Hokkaido in 2018 to discover the legendary powder and came home with a passion for sake. The company was set in motion once he met his business partner, Reina Watanabe, during a LinkedIn browsing session. He noticed she was connected to the online sake scene and he reached out. Serendipity occurred as Reina moved back to Japan from San Francisco during the pandemic. She was able to disperse his pitch deck to multiple brewers in Oita, Japan that were suffering from the lack of sales and discovered an amazing brewery that was willing to collaborate. Over the year, on every Monday, the team met on Zoom.
This has been a two-year project that has produced an exceptional small production Junmai Daiginjo sake that was awarded double gold medal in its very first international wine competition debut at the New York World Wine and Spirits competition. A double gold medal means that all judges voted unanimously for a gold medal. Safu Sake entered the contest just weeks after it landed in the United States and the bottles were expeditiously mailed to New York to be judged.
With the supply chain challenges, Safu’s first container arrived from southern Japan to Long Beach in August. Many food and wine event registration deadlines had passed, however, thanks to the kindness of all the Executive Directors at each event, Safu Sake was permitted to pour samples at the top wine events in southern California.
“The first wine event was Uncorked Del Mar in conjunction with the horse races,” said Mike Morelock, director of sales, who manned the Safu booth at many of the events. “I have never seen such unanimous positive compliments at a wine event in my 25 years in the wine business. These compliments were repeated at the California Wine and Food Festival in Dana Point, then in Huntington Beach and at the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival in November. People who were not fans of sake were mystified by the refreshing, clean and crisp flavors of Safu Sake’s Junmai Daiginjo.”
The chefs from all over California and surrounding states found that their offerings of fresh seafood, spicy cuisine, fresh veggies, exotic cheeses and even the beef dishes paired perfectly and Safu’s junmai daiginjo complimented them easily. Safu says they intend to pair their sake with cuisines from all backgrounds, not just Japanese food.
The reason that Safu Sake is so likable is that they partnered with a sake brewer, Fujii Shuzo, who has 150 years of brewing experience within the same family in Japan. Six generations of refining flavors that America has never seen until now. The Toji (brewer) for this sake is 94 years-old and the oldest in Japan. He is passing his experience to his grandson who helped make this award-winning sake what it is today.
Only 1,000 six pack cases of 720 mL bottles are produced each year and it is only made in the coolest months of the year. The rice used is a varietal of the best premium sake rice, Yamaguchi Yamada Nishiki, milled down (polished) to 50% size so the purity of the rice is showcased and the husk with impurities is removed. The water used in production is from the Ono River which is recognized all over the world for the sake that is made from it. The special yeast from Hiroshima is their trade secret and it works its magic on the pure pearls of rice to transform the batch into a smooth, melon and pear tasting miracle.
Safu translated to English means surf. The clean, cool, and fresh flavors in this sake are reminiscent of the ocean that connects the United States to Japan. Safu Sake discovered that surfing connected the U.S. to Japan in the 1960s as U.S. soldiers stationed in Japan would bring their boards to the Japanese beaches and teach the Japanese how to standup and have fun on the waves. Safu Sake’s mission is to share this unique sake to the U.S. and bring the premium sake to all in a way that is understandable. Their label is in English and their branding is southern Californian.
Safu has pursued an omnichannel approach to build the brand and can be found at restaurants, retail stores, and through a direct-to-consumer platform on their website.
This extraordinary new company, merging Japanese craft precision and attractive western branding, is changing how sake is perceived in the United States and hopes to be the top-of-mind sake brand that is currently a blank space to most when asked what is their go-to-sake is.
For More Information:
https://medium.com/@paul_38238/a-new-sake-company-is-born-over-zoom-d2eea54a00e