SOGAINI: Hiroshima Dialect in a Bottle, and Japanese Whisky for Every Day
2025.8.04
News from Sakurao, here at home
A new whisky is coming out of Sakurao Distillery in Hatsukaichi, Hiroshima.
It’s called SOGAINI.
Sogaini is Hiroshima dialect for “that much” — the way you’d say it here, not the way you’d say it in Tokyo. You’ll see it a fair few times below.
Release date: October 1, 2025.
That far off, and I already can’t sit still.
I have a feeling something big is about to happen with this bottle.
⬇️ The latest report is here ⬇️
SOGAINI, taken apart properly — and something remarkable that happened on the distillery tour
Why SOGAINI matters
- Sogaini easy to buy: the ¥2,000 range, before tax.
- Sogaini much work behind it: 100% Japanese malt and grain, made start to finish in-house.
- Sogaini solidly built that it clears the Japanese whisky labelling standard.
Japanese whisky has meant expensive single malts, mostly.
SOGAINI came out of a different thought: it doesn’t have to be sogaini expensive to be the real thing.
Sakurao is moving — and Forest Site is what’s next
Sakurao is currently building a second distillery, Sakurao Forest Site, deep in the mountains.
There was nothing there yet, and I wanted to see it so badly that I went twice.
I was sogaini excited I couldn’t help myself.
▼ From my visits to Forest Site, back when there was nothing there yet
What kind of view will open up from here, and what kind of whisky will come out of it —
I get carried away just imagining it.
When it’s finished, a sogaini remarkable new chapter of Sakurao’s history begins.
The taste — sogaini much packed into one glass
A blend of spirit from two warehouses: Sakurao and Togouchi.
(From the official release ↓)
A high malt proportion for a blend, with an aroma that is strong, fine-grained and fruity.
Sweet vanilla on the nose. In the mouth, a chocolate sweetness alongside a soft acidity like ripe citrus.
In a highball the fruit from the malt lifts clearly, and it becomes cleaner still, and easier to drink.
The name SOGAINI is Hiroshima dialect for “that much.”
Sogaini good in quality, sogaini good in aroma, sogaini good in flavour, sogaini easy to buy — all of it packed into one bottle.
A bottle with the warmth of this place in it.
The view opening up ahead
The campaign features the actor Sota Fukushi.
Bringing in someone sogaini famous — they’re serious about this.
This is a step toward moving Japanese whisky from something for special occasions into something you live with.
A distillery in Hiroshima looking sogaini far ahead, and moving. That gets to me.
A properly Japanese whisky in the ¥2,000 range.
Sogaini within reach that it could become a new standard — the first since Suntory Kaku.
(Nikka’s Frontier and Black Nikka use some imported spirit.)
It might even pass Kaku one day.
I can’t wait for the day I open a bottle of SOGAINI at my counter.
It’ll be a highball, I think. A glass with sogaini much in it, going out from Hiroshima to the world.
Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum & Whisky.
Bar Little Happiness — Mika Tanimoto
[About the author]
Mika Tanimoto
CEO, Little.m Inc. / Owner-bartender
Since 2006, I have run Bar Little Happiness, a whisky and rum bar in Nagarekawa, Hiroshima. I visit distilleries in Japan and around the world and write about the people who make the spirits. Recipient of the Hiroshima City Excellent Skilled Worker Award.
“Whisky and rum taste even better when you know the hearts of the people who make them.”
[Visit the bar] 📍 Bar Little Happiness
Rolling Nagarekawa 1F, 5-14 Nagarekawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima
Mon–Sat 7:00 pm – 12:30 am / Sun 7:00 pm – 12:00 am (closed when I travel to visit distilleries)
No cover charge, no reservation needed
