Richard Geoffroy, the ex-chef de cave of Dom Pérignon, reveals what gets him excited as his acclaimed sake label IWA enters its third year
Despite his decades-long career, to meet Richard Geoffroy for the first time is to be taken aback by how immediately his inner child reveals itself. Whether it's his eyes lighting up with a bite of A3 Wagyu sirloin or a steamed garoupa and shrimp dumpling, the former chef de cave of Dom Pérignon and founder of the acclaimed IWA sake brewery in Shiraiwa, Japan is the embodiment of curiosity, playfulness and a penchant for experimentation.
"To me, sake is all about experimenting,” says Geoffroy over lunch at Teppanroom during his first post-pandemic visit to Hong Kong. “I always tell people they should be spontaneous and experiment with sake by using different glassware, serving it at different temperatures and pairing it with all kinds of food. The key is not to let the appellations intimidate you”.
Sake wasn’t always Richard Geoffroy’s first love. The legendary champagne maker spent 28 years perfecting the art of making champagne at Dom Pérignon, but when he realised he had achieved the pinnacle of his craft, he decided it was time for a new challenge. And in a grain of rice, he found his calling.
"I was ready to take on a new project that would keep me stimulated and inspired. I couldn’t imagine spending my life dedicated to winemaking anymore and I was hoping to move on to something different enough. I wanted to work on something close enough to be wine without it being wine. And voila! Sake is it in so many ways,” he says.
Geoffroy has visited Japan more than 100 times thanks to his former life in champagne production, and he fell for the national drink of Japan after a sip from a humble jar at a temple in Kyoto (he has never found out the name of this particular sake producer). After several years spent familiarising himself with sake, Geoffroy launched IWA in 2019 in partnership with Ryuichiro Masuda, the owner of Masuizumi, a highly regarded sake brewery in Toyama prefecture.
Don't miss: “It’s not a kingdom anymore”: Maurice Hennessy remembers the The Crown-like antics of cognac’s family-run era
“Sake is the DNA and identity of Japan, and as I fell in love with the country, I inevitably took a liking to sake too. I wanted to contribute my experience and skills to the sake community, and by coming up with my personal interpretation, I hope to bridge the world of sake with the world of wine," Geoffroy intones.
So how does one bridge these two worlds? For Geoffroy, it’s by doing what he does best. Since launching IWA, Geoffroy has been applying an experimental approach to sake making. Each IWA release is the embodiment of assemblage, a blending technique that first originated in champagne making. Instead of focusing on a single rice variety or prefecture, his sake is made by blending multiple rice varieties and classes of yeast.
"When it comes to blending, it’s all about the balance of the taste. While working with rice varieties was new to me, I had so much ease in doing that. Applying assemblage in sake making came very naturally, and I was surprised at myself for being so comfortable with it, as if it was part of a previous life," he explains.
His latest release, IWA 5 Assemblage 3, is comprised of three rice varieties: Yamada Nishiki, Omachi and Gohyakumangoku, as well as five classes of yeast. The result? A junmai daiginjo sake that defies its tradition. While traditional junmai daiginjo places an emphasis on the nose, IWA 5 imparts a longer finish on the mouth. Even though his interpretation of sake brings out more substances, richness and intensity, the sake is as easy to drink as ever.
Upon first sip, Assemblage 3 has a distinctive floral profile with hints of ripe pear and flashes of white pepper. As an uninitiated sake drinker who’s more familiar with wine, I find drinking IWA to be much more easygoing and refreshing, making the task of pairing the sake with food less intimidating than with wine.
