李白酒造Rihaku Shuzo

The name on the label is a politician's handwriting.

Wakatsuki Reijiro was born in Matsue, served twice as prime minister of Japan in the late 1920s and early 1930s, and loved two things that pair well: classical poetry and the local sake. A leading politician from Matsue, by 1928 a former prime minister who would later return to the office, he turned his attention to a brewery in his hometown, proposed it take the name of the Tang poet he admired most, and left behind the calligraphy for the two characters 李白. That brushwork still rides on every bottle. By the brewery's own account the name was adopted in 1928, between his two stints at the head of the government.

The poet was Li Bai, read Rihaku in Japanese, who lived from 701 to 762 and is remembered as much for his drinking as his verse. He spent years at the imperial court, fell out of favor, and wandered the country inn to inn with a wine cup and a brush. The line everyone quotes at a Rihaku tasting was not his own boast but his friend Du Fu's tribute, which paints Li Bai as the man who turned out a hundred poems for every measure of wine. A drunk, restless, brilliant exile was an odd patron saint for a business. It fit anyway.

The brewery itself is older than the name. It was founded in 1882 in Matsue, the castle town on Lake Shinji in Shimane, originally under the founding family's own name before Wakatsuki's suggestion stuck. Shimane sits in the old San'in region on the Japan Sea side, a stretch of coast that takes the brunt of winter and has been making sake since the mythological age. Matsue is unusual for a Japanese city in that tea and sweets run deep here, a legacy of the tea-loving lord Matsudaira Fumai, so the local palate leans toward refinement rather than weight.

That shows up in the house style. Rihaku mills hard, keeping one of the higher average polishing rates among Japanese breweries, and aims for clean junmai-grade sake rather than fireworks. The export flagship abroad is the Wandering Poet, a Junmai Ginjo brewed from Yamada Nishiki rice milled to 55 percent, with the kind of light-to-medium body and herbal, fruit-edged finish that wants food next to it. The naming is no accident. If you are going to drink the way Li Bai drank, you want something that keeps up across a long evening.

Key facts

• Founded 1882 in Matsue, Shimane, on the San'in (Japan Sea) coast; originally under the founding family's name
• Named after the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai (701–762), read "Rihaku" in Japanese, famed for writing under the influence
• The name was suggested by Matsue-born politician Wakatsuki Reijiro, twice prime minister and a former premier at the time of the 1928 naming, whose calligraphy of 李白 still appears on the labels
• Maintains one of the higher average rice-polishing rates among Japanese breweries; focus on clean junmai-grade sake
• Export flagship "Wandering Poet" is a Junmai Ginjo from Yamada Nishiki milled to 55%, positioned as a food sake
• Matsue's refined tea-and-sweets culture, a legacy of lord Matsudaira Fumai, shapes the region's lighter palate