Echigo Heiya, meaning the Echigo plain, is a brand from Fukugao Sake Brewery, founded in 1897 in Sanjo City, Niigata Prefecture, where the brewery name itself translates as smiling face and has been the house mark since opening. Rather than factory-scale production, Fukugao operates as a small handcrafted brewery, relying on the rigorously trained five senses of its brewers and drawing water from the Ikarashi River through slow natural filtration without chemical treatment. The Echigo Heiya expression uses Yamada Nishiki from the Special A-growing region of Hyogo, offering full ginjo character and the broad, rich flavor the rice is known for.
