Actor Cate Blanchett.
Credit: Reuters Photo
By Sarah Rappaport
Cate Blanchett says she’s been sake-obsessed for a long time, discovering her love for the beverage when she was working with Japanese skin care company SK-II. For more than a decade, the two-time Oscar-winning actor was an ambassador for the brand, which uses a yeast found in sake fermentation in its products.
“I went to the sake district in Kyoto, and I was exposed to the fermentation process and all of the byproducts in sake and the different ways that it can be made, and then I thought that this category is enormous,” she tells Bloomberg in London. Blanchett says she loves the ritual and intimacy of people pouring sake for one another—and drinks it chilled.
Now her newest role is creative director for Toku Sake. The rice wine is brewed in one of Japan’s coldest cities, Asahikawa, and fermented in the Hokkaido prefecture’s frosty conditions. It’s light and easy to drink, with crisp apple notes, hints of peach and melon and a subtle umami finish. The ideal serve is ice cold, and the bottles are transported in similarly chilled conditions. Toku retails for £155 ($200), which puts it firmly on the premium end of the sake market.
Sake usually retails for around $30 to $40 per 720ml bottle, according to Sophia Sioris, manager and buyer at Brooklyn, New York, sake and wine shop Bin Bin. Her shop sells bottles from $18 at the low end to $350 at the top. “We’re seeing more collaboration sakes now that are a little pricier,” says Sioris, adding that in New York now, more people are expanding their horizons about sake—the shop’s tastings have been selling out.
Blanchett says there’s a real opportunity to increase the market for sake in the West—and change people’s perceptions of the drink.
Data from the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association show that the market for sake in 2023 was 1.8 times larger than it was in 2019, with more countries importing than ever. Export prices also hit an all-time high of above 1,000 yen ($6.80), a price that has doubled in the past decade. (The bulk of sake sold is of a lower standard.) The biggest export market is China, with the US close behind.
The premium sake market is growing, too, especially in restaurants such as three-Michelin-starred the Fat Duck, which offers guests an extensive list of high-end rice wine options.
“I think that a lot of people here think they can only enjoy it in a Japanese restaurant with Japanese cuisine,” Blanchett says, but that’s not the case. She points to Toku now being served at California cuisine restaurant Sola in London and at country-chic English resort the Newt in Somerset, both of which are known for their focus on produce. “The sake market is more dynamic than people initially perceive it to be,” she says.
Blanchett’s tieup with Toku came as she was looking to create her own brand of sake. Celebrity-owned alcohol brands have taken off in recent years, with some of the most successful being George Clooney’s Casamigos tequila and Ryan Reynolds’ Aviation gin, both of which were bought by beverage giant Diageo Plc for as much as $1.6 billion. Bruno Mars has also taken a bet on rum, while Woody Harrelson announced that he’s crafting booze from artichoke leaves.
“My palate had been educated through the experience of meeting master brewers,” Blanchett explains of her initial foray. “And when I tried Toku, I thought, ‘Why am I trying to create something when this liquid exists?’”