Glossary

What is written on sake bottle labels?

Japanese regulations require that points 1 through 7 below must be printed on the labels of sake bottles.
If items 8 through 13 are displayed, they must be displayed as prescribed by law.
The same applies for displaying the number of years stored, terminology that expresses exceptional quality, geographical information, organic status, and similar information.

Sake bottle labels on the front.
  • 1Alcohol content
  • 2Raw ingredients(as a rule, it is not necessary to list water)
  • 3Locations grown of raw rice
  • 4Product name(e.g.: Both 日本酒 (nihonshu ) and 清酒 (seishu) are correct Japanese terms for sake)
  • 5Net volume
  • 6Name and address of the brewery
  • 7Caution: not to be sold to or consumed by minors
  • 8Specific designations(ginjo, junmai, or honjozo)
  • 9Seimai-buai(Degree of rice polishing)
  • 10Variety of raw rice
  • 11Sake brewing location
  • 12Characteristics of the sake(i.e. 原酒(genshu), ⽣酒(namazake), ⽣貯蔵酒(nama-chozo-shu), ⽣⼀本(ki-ippon), 樽酒(taruzake))
  • 13Date produced
Some sake bottles have another label on the back of the bottle.It will include more information about the product and other information about quality.

Resources

You can check the detailed information of the introduced contents from the link below.