An Ex-Wall Streeter’s Big Bet on Sake

When Yumiko Munekyo was a vice president at Nomura Holdings Inc. in 2011, she would take clients to upscale sushi spots around Manhattan. They’d invariably order junmai daiginjo, the highest grade of sake and also usually the priciest, but not always the most interesting or appropriate.

Munekyo knew better, having grown up in Japan’s Hokuriku region, a hub for artisanal sake, or jizake. New York’s top Japanese restaurants almost never stocked them. “They were mainly serving daiginjo, which is made from highly polished rice so it’s elegant and floral, good with some fish but not with meat,” she says. “I wanted different sakes that people could pair with food, like wine.”