Loyalty to the Quality
There is a growing demand from consumers for healthy, safe and satisfying products from year to year. None of these requests can be realized without high-quality ingredients, reliable growers and advanced management systems.
Since its establishment, Sapporo Breweries has been storing up unique technical know-how and pursuing finer ingredients and quality. "Haruna Nijo" Barley, registered in 1981, has been described as "Miracle Barley," and is still used as the world's highest-grade mother plant after 20 years. In the 1970s, hopyards in the Czech Republic were in critical condition due to a virus, but Sapporo Breweries' virus-free hops eased the crisis. Our products rest on a variety of world-class technologies and expertise that have long accumulated throughout our history.
Sapporo Breweries completed the Collaborative Contract Farming System for barley and hops in early 2006.
Beer and happo-shu are mainly made from barley and hops. The quality of ingredients directly affects the taste of beer. "Contract Farming" means understanding the ingredient's grower, yard and cultivation method. "Collaborative" means that Sapporo Breweries and growers have closer communication and cooperate with each other to grow high-quality ingredients.
In autumn 2003, Sapporo Breweries made a commitment to "complete the Collaborative Contract Farming System for barley and hops by 2006." The project is now completed and the System was already launched for the Hokkaido Namashibori brand in 2005. The Collaborative Contract Farming System enables us to grasp environmental burdens from the material procurement stage, and highly evaluating this initiative, the Development Bank of Japan certified it as a top-ranked initiative of the "Environment-Conscious Management Promotion Program" in 2006.
By selecting fields carefully, utilizing only safe and high-quality ingredients, Sapporo Breweries pursues to make more satisfying beer. Our distinctive approach towards our products continues to please consumers.
Sapporo Breweries has the same loyalty to wines as to beers.
Sapporo Breweries' wines are produced in two wineries in Japan: Grande Polaire Katsunuma Winery which is a boutique winery located in Katsunuma, Japan's wine mecca, in Yamanashi prefecture, and Okayama Winery, our major winemaking site with the certification of FSSC22000, the international standard for food safety management systems.
Winemaking starts from growing good grapes. Sapporo Breweries focuses on nurturing its own vineyards and growers in the Collaborative Contract Farming System both domestic and overseas. Furthermore, we implement high-level viniculture from indigenous to European grapes. Wine made from quality grapes in our proprietary low-temperature management system (cooled winery) are highly appreciated at home and abroad, winning the Golden Award in the Japan Wine Competition for three consecutive years.
Sapporo Breweries continues to make excellent grapes and produce Japanese wines that are respected around the world.