On Saturday, August 7, Reiwa 8, the "Gathering of Carefully Brewed Sake Made with Niigata Rice, 4th Edition" will be held at the Nagaoka Grand Hotel. This event is an exchange event that brings together producers, breweries, and consumers to showcase the new charm of sake culture, with the theme of the potential of sake rice from Niigata Prefecture. The biggest highlight this time is the opportunity to taste sake made with Niigata-grown Yamada Nishiki, used for the world-renowned brand "Dassai," and the new variety "Shunyo" (which generates lychee and Muscat aromas from rice, 4MMP), which has been gaining attention both domestically and internationally as "rice wine" in recent years. Yamada Nishiki is known as the king of sake rice, and high-quality cultivation is progressing in Niigata Prefecture, making it a promising new production area for the global market. Last January, we held the "New Year Celebration with Niigata Dassai" event. Attendees came from afar, including the Maldives, Tokyo, and Tochigi. For the "Dassai Moon Project," the author of the manga "Space Brothers," Chūya Koyama, designed a large kite, and Dassai members and producers were present. Meanwhile, "Shunyo" is a Niigata-developed variety characterized by low protein content. It is also called "rice wine" due to its refreshing aroma reminiscent of white wine and its light taste, which differ from conventional sake, creating new sake fans. Breweries from Akita to Nagasaki are brewing new sake using Shunyo as a raw material, with a wide variety of tastes and aromas depending on the brewery. Foreigners also love it as "rice wine"! Sumikawa Brewery in Yamaguchi Prefecture brews with Shunyo cultivated by agricultural instructor Tadao Iwabuchi. Currently, not only in Niigata Prefecture but also in breweries across the country, including Yamaguchi, Shimane, Kochi, Fukuoka, Tottori, Kanagawa, and Chiba prefectures, are challenging themselves with Shunyo, and this movement is expanding year by year. On t