An insider’s guide to sake – and how to buy Japan’s best

Sitting at the water’s edge in a tiny, remote Japanese fishing village, I’m drinking sake brewed in the old wooden building behind me and eating food cooked by the head brewer’s mother. I’ve never tasted tempura like it: seasonal mountain greens fried in organic canola oil so fresh that it tints the tempura batter a buttercup yellow. The pale golden sake in my tiny ceramic cup is rich and full of umami, deep and satisfying, imbued with the essence of this calm, beautiful place.

The village is Ine, a little-known spot not far from the famous sightseeing destination of Amanohashidate in northern Kyoto prefecture. The bay is fringed by small houses called funaya, two-storey wooden buildings with the lower floor open to the sea allowing the fishing families to store their boats below where they live.