Kanpai! 7 Sakes to Pour on World Sake Day, Including the Newly Crowned Best Sake in the World

World Sake Day falls on October 1, and this year there’s a very good reason to celebrate properly: the International Wine Challenge just crowned a new Champion Sake. Tenbi Junmai Ginjo Hotaten from Yamaguchi took the top title on September 8, and five more 2026 trophy winners (a junmai daiginjo, a food-friendly junmai, a sparkling sake, an aged koshu and the year’s best-value ginjo) join HeavenSake Label Noir, the junmai daiginjo Champagne cellar master Régis Camus blended with Miyagi’s Niizawa brewery, on this list.

Seven bottles. One very good night.

Here’s how I’d play it: open with bubbles, work through the contrast between ginjo and junmai over dinner, bring out the prestige bottle for the caviar, and end with something aged and contemplative while everyone pretends they aren’t about to open another. Sake’s range is the whole point, so don’t let anyone at the table get away with just one pour.

Photo Credit: marcin jucha/Shutterstock.com

Tenbi Junmai Ginjo Hotaten

Choshu Sake Brewery, Yamaguchi

Tenbi Junmai Ginjo Hotaten, from Choshu Sake Brewery in Shimonoseki, was named 2026 IWC Champion Sake on September 8, beating 1,738 entries from 457 producers and becoming the first sake from Yamaguchi Prefecture to win the title. It’s brewed with local Shimonoseki rice and Yamada Nishiki, and the judges praised its bright acidity and layered, lingering finish; think green apple on the nose and a mellow sweetness underneath.

If you buy one bottle on the strength of this year’s awards, make it this one. Showing up to a World Sake Day dinner with the reigning world champion is, frankly, a flex.

Haute Living Verdict: The best sake in the world, officially. Hard to argue with that.

Raifuku Junmai Daiginjo Aiyama

Raifuku Sake Brewing, Ibaraki

Raifuku Junmai Daiginjo Aiyama, made in Ibaraki with the prized (and famously finicky) Aiyama rice, won the 2026 IWC Junmai Daiginjo Trophy. It’s the most polished expression on this list in both senses of the word, all aromatics and texture.

Don’t bury it under food. Pour it on its own before dinner and give it a few minutes to open up in the glass, the way you would a serious white Burgundy.

Haute Living Verdict: The one to sip slowly and talk about loudly.

HeavenSake Label Noir

Niizawa Brewery, Miyagi

HeavenSake Label Noir is a junmai daiginjo blended by Champagne cellar master Régis Camus with Niizawa, the Miyagi brewery famous for polishing rice down to the point of near-disappearance. Camus brings a lifetime of Champagne assemblage to the glass, and the result is floral, ripe with fruit, silky on the palate and finished with a clean, mineral snap. Niizawa’s credentials are pure sake, too: after four straight years as IWC Sake Brewer of the Year (2022 to 2025), the brewery was named IWC Champion Sake Producer for 2026, and its brewmaster, Nanami Watanabe, took the job in 2019 at just 22, making her the youngest female brewmaster in Japan at the time.

Pour it chilled, in a wine glass, next to lobster or a tin of caviar. If you’re hosting a Champagne person who claims they “don’t do sake,” this is the bottle that ends the argument.

Haute Living Verdict: The Champagne lover’s gateway. Dangerously easy to convert on.

Chiebijin Junmai

Nakano Shuzo, Oita

Chiebijin Junmai, from Nakano Shuzo in Oita on the island of Kyushu, won the 2026 IWC Junmai Trophy. A lineup of nothing but daiginjo would miss one of sake’s great pleasures, a good, honest junmai at the table, and this is the bottle that fixes that.

It’s grounded and food-friendly, built to go the distance through dinner, especially once the menu moves past delicate crudo into something richer (grilled fish, pork, a proper steak, even).

Haute Living Verdict: The dinner-party workhorse. Every table needs one.

Born: Premium Sparkling

Katokichibee Shouten, Fukui

Born: Premium Sparkling, from Fukui producer Katokichibee Shouten, won the 2026 IWC Sparkling Sake Trophy. World Sake Day deserves bubbles, and this is the bottle to pop the moment guests walk in.

Hand it to whoever instinctively reaches for Champagne, say nothing and watch their face. Sparkling sake makes its own case as an aperitif, and this one makes it well.

Haute Living Verdict: The opening act. Sets the tone, steals the show.

Born: Awakening of the Angel

Katokichibee Shouten, Fukui

Born: Awakening of the Angel (Tenshi no Mezame in Japanese) comes from the same Fukui producer and won the 2026 IWC Koshu Trophy in the amber-style category. Koshu is aged sake, matured rather than drunk fresh, and it trades the category’s usual crystalline delicacy for something deeper, rounder and more contemplative.

Save it for the end of the night, when the conversation slows down and everyone can give it their full attention. It pairs beautifully with cheese, dark chocolate and at least one existential tangent.

Haute Living Verdict: Sake’s answer to a vintage sherry. The nightcap you didn’t know you needed.

Keiryu Ginjo

Endo Shuzo, Nagano

Keiryu Ginjo, from Endo Shuzo in Nagano, won both the 2026 IWC Ginjo Trophy and the Great Value Champion Sake award. That double is rare, and it’s proof that a great sake doesn’t have to be the priciest bottle on the table.

This is the smart buy for anyone hosting a bigger World Sake Day crowd, and an easy, welcoming introduction for friends tasting ginjo for the first time. Buy a case. You’ll thank me.

Haute Living Verdict: Champion quality, sensible price. The rarest luxury of all.

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