Christmas Sake Tasting
Ho Ho Ho! Happy Holidays and Seasons Greetings fromThe Sake Shop! Well it’s finally here, the last sake tasting of the year! It’s hard to believe that 2011 will be over in just a few weeks. We plan to end the year on a high note with a super duper sake tasting
Our “Sake Santa” Yoshi from World Sake Imports will be here this Saturday to spread his goodwill and cheer! And by goodwill and cheer, we mean he’ll be pouring SEVENdifferent sake for your tasting pleasure.
With Christmas and New Years Day just around the corner, this tasting will be the perfect opportunity to pick up some great Christmas gifts or start your New Years Day sake purchasing early.
Whatever your fancy may be, please be sure to stop by this Saturday and join us for the last sake tasting of the year. Say hi to our “Sake Santa” and come help us celebrate the ending of 2011 with some delicious sake!
CHRISTMAS
COMPLIMENTARY SAKE TASTING & SALE
Saturday, December 17, 2011
2:00pm to 7:30pm
Here is the lineup for this Saturday.
AKITABARE KOSHIKI JUNZUKURI
“NORTHERN SKIES”
Junmai
Akitabare is the kind of sake one can drink enjoyably for hours at a stretch. It’s subdued, understated refinement evokes a sense of the Northern province where it is meticulously brewed.
MASUMI OKUDEN KANTSUKURI
“MIRROR OF TRUTH”
Junmai
Longtime sake-drinkers find this sake comfortingly familiar. It is smooth at first sip and displays a range of subtle, organic flavors as well as a pleasant natural sweetness.
DEWAZAKURA IZUMI JUDAN
“TENTH DEGREE”
Ginjo
A martini-lover’s sake: dry and clear with a hint of juniper reminiscent of Tanqueray. No other ginjo combines dryness (+12 on the SMV scale) and edginess (36 proof) to such exhilarating effect.
KOKURYU TOKUSEN
“CRYSTAL DRAGON”
Junmai Ginjo
Kokuryu “Tokusen” expresses its ginjo identity not through fragrant aroma but with decisively good taste. Its hallmarks are strength, flavor depth and, one notices at last, imperturbable balance.
SEITOKU
“TRAPEZA”
Junmai Ginjo
It Seitoku were any lighter it would float away on a breeze. Pirouettes in perfect balance with just enough body to support its delicate flavor. A graceful, refined sake with easy drinkability.
MASUMI NANAGO
“SEVENTH HEAVEN”
Daiginjo
One of Nadine’s favorites from Nagano prefecture. A lovingly nurtured redolently flavorful daiginjo with an insouciant attitude: old-style sake for the 21st century. Brewed using the old yamahai method.
DEWAZAKURA
“MOUNTAIN CHERRY”
Daiginjo
This sake is reminiscent of softly melting snow. It has a mild floral fragrance, revealing notes of peach and apricot at mid-range, concluding with a light and slightly dry finish.
So please join us this Saturday for our last sake tasting of the year. Pick up some sake for Christmas gifts or start early on choosing your New Year’s sake!
Kanpai,
Malcolm & Nadine Leong
The Sake Shop
CHRISTMAS
COMPLIMENTARY SAKE TASTING & SALE
Saturday, December 17, 2011
2:00 pm to 7:30 pm
Miyasaka Brewery
Masumi Okuden Kantsukuri and Masumi Nanago sake are made by Miyasaka Brewery in Nagano prefecture.
The Miyasaka family originally served as retainers to the Suwa clan who ruled the area at that time. However, following years of strife between the Suwa clan and the warlords Takeda Shingen and Oda Nobunaga, the family gave up their swords and turned to sake making.
The brewery was firmly established by 1662 and had done well enough to gain the praise of several historical figures including the 6th son of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu and Otaka Gengo, one of the famous 47 Ronin.
Masumi Bronze Mirror
Miyasaka Brewery began using the name “Masumi” for their sake at the end of the Edo period (1603-1867). Masumi, which means “truth” or “transparency”, is the name of an 8th century bronze mirror that is kept at the Suwa Taisha Shinto Shrine.
The Miyasaka family provided the shrine with sake for centuries so it was only fitting that that their sake took the name of the shrine’s “Masumi Mirror”.
Akitabare Brewery
Akitabare Brewery is located way up North in Akita prefecture. The kanji characters on it’s Junmai sake label (that we’ll be sampling) reads “Koshiki Junzukuri” which means “The Old Way”.
“The Old Way” refers to the fact that many of the tools such as the large wooden cask used to soak the rice and giant “kama” used for steaming the rice, are all over 100-years old and are still in use today.
A lot of technical innovation and modernization has occurred in the sake industry over the last hundred years, and many of the new tools and techniques have helped to greatly improve the quality of sake.
But when change is just for the sake of modernization, or to increase productivity or maximize profits, there is usually a trade-off in quality. This is a trade-off that Akitabare Brewery has never been willing to make.
What this commitment means in practice is delicacy, precision and care at every step of the brewing process. Akitabare sakes possess perfect balance, a mild aroma and a subtlely expressed but very distinct flavor profile.
Akitabare sake tends to appeal to experienced connoisseurs not overly impressed with flowery aromas and ornate flavors and for whom balance, clarity and finesse are the mark of a superior label.
Mr. Kazuo Kawaguchi
“People’s taste may change over time, and our sakes will change as well, but they will always have a satisfying taste and a distinct personality,” says Kazuo Kawaguchi, the brewery’s president.
“If we had a motto, it would be ‘fierce adherence to tradition, skillful adaptation to change.’ If we were a flower, we would be a peony.”
