sake store

Where to buy sake may be one of the obstacles that sake beginners may encounter at first if you don’t live in Japan.

With the worldwide sake boom, a selected collection of sake is available at local large liquor shops, some Japanese grocery shops or local Japanese restaurants. If you find your favorite sake at a Japanese restaurant, you can ask them its distributor and contact the distributor to find out where you can buy the sake in your neighborhood.  The best way to get good sakes is to go to a local authentic Japanese restaurant (where the Japanese work, not other Asians), and ask them, or ask for the distributors they use. Alternatively, you can buy a variety of sake online. The followings are the list for different countries.

USA

  • Vine Connection: A Sausalito, California based importer distributing a variety of premium sake to 49 states.
  • Sakaya: NYC’s first store specializing in Japanese sake. A very large variety of sake is available. Well recommended.
  • Marukai: A Japanese grocery online store, dealing with a large variety of sake and other Japanese food and drinks. Used by many Japanese expatriates. Well recommended.
  • Sake One: One of the 6 sake breweries in the US and also a sake distributor for the US markets. Only a small selection of sake is available.

Europe

  • Japan CentreA Japanese grocery online seller. Not a large selection of sake and a bit hard to browse.
  • Sake BarA French site. Not a large selection, but sells popular new products like Mio.
  • Amazon UKSells some famous sakes.
  • The Whisky ExchangeA small selection of sake.

Australia

  • Sake OnlineA very large selection of sake. Free shipping for over $100 shopping. Well recommended.
  • Sake NetA Sydney based site. A bit hard to browse as it only displays the labels of the sake brands on the browsing page.
  • Sake OnlineA large selection of sake. Also sells other Japanese beverages such as shochu and umeshu (plum wine).
  • Dan Murphy’sA small variety of sake, most of which are not of very high quality.
  • For Sydney residents – Tokyo Mart, a Japanese grocery shop in Willoughby has started selling a variety of Japanese sake. For their trading hours and address, visit here.