Category Archives: Sake Brewery

美食, 酒, 農業, Fujieda City, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shidaizumi Brewery, Shizuoka

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Shidaizumi Brewery Honjozo “Tatsudoshi”

December 19, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

2012, or more precisely the 24th Year of the Heisei Era, will come under the Sign of the Dragon/Tatsu/龍!
I’ve always had a special fondness for dragons to the point of using them for my e-mail addresses and passwords (part of)!
Shidaizumi Brewery has a tradition of coming with a honjozo every year with a splendid label for collectors!

Shidaizumi Brewery: Honjozo-Tatsudoshi/龍歳

Rice milled down to 60%
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Bottled in December 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Transparent
Aroma: Strong, complex and fruity. Banana, dark chocolate, pears.
Body: Fluid
Taste: Drier attack than expected, very fruity and complex.
Lingers on for a short while with a dry note backed by pleasant alcohol.
Fruity and dry. Complex. Oranges, banana, dark chocolate, macadamia nuts.
Finishes on a dry note with strong hints of nuts and a faint trace of coffee beans.
Varies little with food.
Shows more facets than expected, especially oranges and coffee beans fighting for supremacy as taste lingers away.

Overall: A sake obviously conceived to accompany and enhance food, although its high (extravagant) quality makes it eminently drinkable on its own.
Can be appreciated at room temperature and nurukan/lukewarm.
Tends to surprise with many unexpected facets appearing out of nowhere.
A surely extravagant honjozo!

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Must-see tasting websites:

-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

美食, 酒, 農業, Fuji-Takasago Brewery, Fujinomiya City, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka, 富士高砂酒造, 富士宮市

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Fuji-Takasago Brewery-“Tatsu/Dragon” Limited Edition Futsushu

December 7, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

The New Year is around the corner, and as next year is the Year of the Dragon, many breweries put out various limited brews with a Dragon label!
Fuji-Takasago Brewery in Fujinomiya City came up with a limited Futsushu/regular brew for the occasion!
Be assured that the label will be carefully stored away!

Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Dryness: + 5.0
Bottled in November 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Very faint golden hue
Aroma: Strong and fruity. Dryish. Coffee beans, vanilla.
Body: Fluid
Taste: Very powerful and fruity attack backed by pleasant alcohol warming up back of the palate.
Coffee beans, dark chocolate, vanilla, apricots.
Fairly quickly disappears on a very dry note.
Varies little with food but gets drier with some oranges joining in with dry coffee beans.
Coffee beans repeatedly make a strong comeback with every sip.

Overall: A sake obviously designed for food but eminently drinkable on its own.
The fruitiness tends to conceal the dryness at first.
Can be appreciated in any ways: chilled, room temperature or lukewarm.
Considering it is only a futsushu, one might overreact and talk of extravagance for such a cheap price!

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美食, 酒, 農業, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Haginishiki Brewery-Toro No Sato Tokubetsu Junmai

November 24, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

The labels of Sake Breweries make for a good support for advertising cultural assets among others to the rest of the world.
Haginishiki Brewery in Shizuoka City has long been producing a fine sake under the name of Toro no Sato/登呂の里:Toro Village to commemorate the Ruins of Toro.

The site of a village dating back to the late Yayoi Period (about 2,000 yeras ago) was unearthed on the 11th of July 1943 in the middle of Shizuoka City. It is registered as a National Historic Monument and is open to the public as well as a Museum.

Rice: Biyama Nishiki/美山錦
Rice milled down to 55%
Dryness: + 1
Acidity: + 1.4
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Bottled in June 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Almost transparent
Aroma: Discreet, complex. Greens, faint notes of coffee beans and vanilla
Body: Fluid
Taste: Very dry attack backed by Junmai petillant.
Complex and fruity: Coffee beans, banana, dry nuts.
Starts and ends up very dry with pleasant alcohol.
Lingers on very little.
Turns even drier with food with strong hints of coffee beans and dark chocolate competing with very dry banana and greens.

Overall: A sake obviously devised for food that can be drunk lightly chilled, at room temperature or lukewarm.
More complex and drier than expected. Its dryness makes it a good sake for any food, especially izakaya fare.
Very solid and dependable. No wonder we see it often in Shizuoka Izakayas!

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美食, 酒, 農業, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka

Shizuoka sake Tasting: Senju Brewery: Junmai Ginjyo (Rice grown free of agrochemical agents)

November 7, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Senju Brewery in Iwata City produces what could be termed “maboroshi sake”, “hidden sake”, as it is difficult to obtain away from Iwata City. They produce superlative sake and shochu, and what’s more they have recently joined a growing number of breweries making sake with rice cultivated without any agrochemical agents!

Creating junmai ginjyo with such a rice is a proof of courage and extravagant quality!
Interestingly enough, the name “Senju” almost does not appear on the label!

You will find it on the cap!

Rice milled down to 55%
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Bottled in July 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Faint golden hue
Aroma: Discreet, dryish and fruity.
Body: Fluid
Taste: Dryish and fruity attack backed up by a little junmai petillant.
Complex and sophisticated.
Greens, dry apples, coffee beans, notes of mandarines and liquorice.
Drinks very easily.
Disappears quickly on a sweetish note.
Turns slightly drier with food with more greens appearing.

Overall: Definitely a sake conceived for tasting although it beautifully marries with food thanks to its pronounced dryness.
Feminine in approach, a sake greatly appreciated for its own sake although I particularly enjoyed it with deep-fried vegetables!
Tends to disappear quickly, making it so easy to drink!

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美食, 農業, Gastronomy, Izu Peninsula, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka, Shochu

Shizuoka Shochu Tasting: Bandai Brewery-Wasabi Shochu!

October 31, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

Shizuoka Prefecture produces not only 80% of all wasabi grown in Japan, it is also the home of the only true wasabi shochu!
True to say, one cannot make shochu out of wasabi only as it does not contain starch to help the fermentation and distillation, but Bandai Brewery in Shuzenji, Izu Peninsula, concocted it with 75% of top-class rice shochu made from the sake lees of their own sake and 25% of pure essence of wasabi grown in Izu Peninsula!

More precisely, the wasabi is grown on the Amagi Plateau/Amagi Kougen/天城高原 in the northern part of the Peninsula.
At the same time Bandai Brewerry uses pure source water gushing from the Plateau to brew its sake and shochu!

Although it is a true shochu in concept mixed with wasabi essence, Bandai Brewery advertizes it as a sake or liqueur!
It might explain the choice of bottle, a bit unusual for shochu, but easy to handle and store!

Bandai Brewery-Wasabi Sake/Wasabi Shochu

Rice shochu: 75%
Wasabi essence: 25%
Water: Natural source water from Amagi Plateau
Alcohol: 20 degrees

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Transparent
Aroma: Sweetish. Rice, wasabi, faint notes of banana
Body: fluid
Taste: Softer attack than expected.
Very sophisticated, as complex as a sake!
Pleasant and soft wasabi flavor. Almost a liqueur without the sugar and the cloy aftertaste!
No piquancy at all.
Faint notes of bananas appearing later as it disappears quickly warming up the back of the palate.

Overall: A discovery!
A shochu? Yes!
The fact it is made in the simplest manner possible, that is a high quality rice shochu blended with pure wasabi essence makes it both sophisticated and extravagant.
Its comparatively low alcohol content, 20 degrees, makes it eminently drinkable as it is without any ice, water or whatever!
Most appreciated straight at room temperature.
Could definitely be served as a heady and mysterious aperitif!

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美食, 農業, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Kokko Brewery-Kokko Ginjyou

October 14, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Kokko Brewery in Fukuroi City holds a special place in the history of the sake of Shizuoka Prefecture as it was the first brewery to use the Shizuoka sake yeast which revolutionized the whole industry in Shizuoka and helped our Prefecture out of the doldrums (dregs) up to the very top in Japan!

Usually the brewery does not write information apart of that required by law.
Alcohol: 16~17 degrees (genshu/no water added)
Bottled in August 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Transparent
Aroma: Fruity, dry, discreet. Bananas.
Body: Fluid
Taste: Very dry attack backed up by strong and pleasant alcohol.
Complex. Fruity: Bananas, coffee beans, dry almonds.
Disappears fairly quickly with dry apricots and coffee beans, warming up the palate.
Turns sweeter with food although makes a quick comeback to dry as soon as away from food again with more coffee beans and a note of dark chocolate.

Overall: Very dry, even by Shizuoka standards.
A ginjyou that marries beautifully with any food.
Very sophisticated although its sharp character will please people looking for a sake off the beaten tracks, that is, in Shizuoka Prefecture!
In spite of its ginjyou elevated status I would drink it with food, especially salads!

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Beef, 牛肉, 美食, 野菜, 観光, 魚, 農業, Fish, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, Potatoes, Recipes, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka Cuisine, Tomato, Tourism, vegetables

BBQ With Shizuoka Local Products!

October 9, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

In Japan and Shizuoka BBQ’s are taken very seriously!
Today, Sunday October 9th, I took part in the 2nd Shizuoka Products BBQ organized by Nagashima Wine Shop in Shizuoka City!
The event catered for no less than 50 people and certainly required some organization like the Japanese are so good at!

The event took place on the bbq space of Yamako/山幸 soba shop up in the Mariko mountains in Shizuoka City!

The BBQ was scheduled for 11:00 a.m. but I came early to give a hand and to be able to report on the whole day!
It certainly was hot for an October Sunday!

Plenty of hands needed, but organizing committee included some hefty guys!

We still took time to share a joke or two!

Let me introduce all the good people who made it possible!
Takahiro Nagashima/長島孝博/ owner of Nagashima Wine shop in Shizuoka City, the main organizer.

Kazutaka Takashima/高嶋一孝, owner and master-brewer of Takashima Brewery in Numazu City.

Yuusuke Tozaki/戸崎雄介, owner-chef of Hana Oto Chinese Izakaya in Shizuoka City.

Takao Shimura/志村剛生, owner-chef of Narusei Tempura Restaurant in Shizuoka City.

Shigeru Sano/佐野茂治, owner-chef of Kamoshibito Restaurant in Shizuoka City.

Ken-ya Yoshimura, owner-chef of Uzu Izakaya, the leader of the group!

I took a break to take a stroll in the natural surroundings. Beautiful but unfortunately inedible karasu uri/烏瓜!

Things getting ready!

Preparing the charcoal BBQ!

Washing the vegetables!
All the vegetables of the day, except for the mushrooms and the jumbo peanuts were organic and grown by Bio Farm Matsuki in Fujinomiya City!

Little beauties for the salads!

Organic tomatoes!

Butternut squash!

Oura burdock roots!

Yuzu Koshio and Basil Paste created by Ken-ya Yoshimura at Uzu!

Sauces/dressings for the BBQ!

All the sakes of the day were nectars called Hakuin Masamune brewed by Takashima Brewery!

Kazutaka Takashima makes it known all through his sake labels that the Suruga Bay has the largest number of edible seaweed varieties in Japan!

The water of the day all came from Takashima Brewery’s own well!

All the guests were provided a sake cup with a removable cap to make sure not a single drop would be spilled!

Rainbow trout from Kunugi Fish Farm in Fujinomiya City!

Preparing the rainbow trout sashimi plate!

Beautiful, isn’t it?

Boiled jumbo peanuts grown in Shizuoka City! Great snack!

Pick your tomato!

Gomadare/sesame dressing by Sanoman Company in Fujinomiya City!

Boiled mangenton pork belly slices, cucumber and boiled bean sprouts salad!

The star of the day: dry ageing beef (Holstein) by Sanoman Co.!

The star of the day on the charcoal grill!

Decorating the bbq’d beef tray with mushrooms grown by Mr. hasegawa in Fuji City! To be savored raw!

Cutting the beef sashimi style!

Placing the beef on the tray…

Almost ready… I wasn’t left any time for a last picture!

Mangenton pork sausages!

Red Moon potatoes tempura!

Oura burdock root tempura!

Preparing the butternut squash tempura!

Absolutely delicious!

Organic sweet potatoes!

Anchovy sauce potatoes!

The guest product of the day: mozuku seaweed brought all the way from Miyako Island in Okinawa!

The other star of the day! Toshiyaki Horie/堀江利彰, owner of Horie Chicken Farm in Shuzenji, Izu Peninsula, who came all the way tpo demonstrate the cutting of his Amagi Shamo Chickens!

An attentive audience…

Amagi Shamo is arguably the best and rarest chicken in Japan!

Charcoal-grilled Amagi Shamo Chicken!

Yummy!

Some very happy and contented ladies!

See you again next year same time!

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美食, 酒, 観光, 農業, Gastronomy, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka, Tourism

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Shidaizumi Brewery-Hiyaoroshi Futsushu Funeshibori

October 3, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Shidaizumi Brewery in Fujieda City is not only celebrated for its great nectars but also for its research in all types of sake!
They explained me that they do have a local clientele who exclusively drink their sake as futsushu/”normal sake” (as opposed to premium sake)!

They also came up with this bright yellow label both in Japanese and English to appeal to local foreigners!

This sake is a Hiyaoroshi/ひやおろし, meaning it has been pasteurized only once!
“Funeshibori/ふねしぼり” means that is has been pressed in a large rectangular vessel filled with bags of sake taken out of the fermenting vats.
It is also a genshu/原酒 meaning that no pure water was added!

Now, this sake being futsushu/normal sake it is pretty well opened to experiment as you will see below:

Rice: Hyakumangoku 20% + normal rice (futsumai!) 80%
Hyakumangoku Rice milled down to 65% (absolutely extravagant!)
Yeast: Shizuoka Yeast N02
Dryness: + 6.0
Acidity: 1.3
Alcohol: 17~18 degrees (genshu)
Bottled in September 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Light golden hue
Aroma: Strong, dry and fruity. Vanilla, almonds, apricots, alcohol
Body: Fluid
Taste: Fruity with pleasant big alcohol attack
Disappears fairly quickly with warmth spreading all over the palate.
Complex. Dry but very fruity: Apricots, macadamia nuts, almonds.
Very solid throughout. Varies little with food, except for an accentuated dryness with oranges.

Overall: If futsushu, so-called normal sake, were all like this, there would little incentive to taste or buy premium sake! But this is Shizuoka Prefecture where all sake are extravagant as a matter of course! A sake you can savor with any food or on its own although it was obviously designed to accompany simple everyday meals!

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Beer, 美食, Desserts, 酒, 野菜, 魚, 農業, French Cuisine, French gastronomy, French Restaurant, Fuji City, Fuji-Takasago Brewery, Gastronomy, Italian Cuisine, Italian Restaurants, Japan, Japanese Gastronomy, Microbrewery Beer, Restaurants, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka, Shizuoka agricultural products, Tourism, 富士市, 有機野菜

Fuji No Kuni Gastronomic Fair in Fuji City (September 2011)

September 23, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

On September 22nd another “Fuji no Kuni” Gastronomic Fair was held under the auspices of the Shizuoka Prefecture Economy & Industry Bureau at Maison De Anniversaire in Fuji City to support the local food and producers.

As the event started at 7 p.m. I arrived a bit early at Shin Fuji Station where I was greeted by a beautiful sunset!
As the site of the event took place high at the foot of Mount Fuji I did well to reach the Station at 6 p.m.!

Arriving early gave me ample time to greet some friends and acquaintances like Mr. Sano, owner of Sanoman Co. in Fujinomiya City!

It also allowed me to survey the dining room and have a look at the menu and appetizers on my plate before exchanging business cards with many another guest. Actually most guests, representing companies or coming as individuals, had some kind of direct relation with the economy and agriculture of Shizuoka Prefecture.
Incidentally, the appetizers were Mangenton ball in escabeche from Sanoman Co. and the chicken roulade was made with Koshamo chicken from Aoki Farm in Fuji City!

The beer that day was brewed by Stephan Rager at Bayern Meister Beer Co. in Fujinomiya City!

And the Japanese sake was provided by Fuji-Takasago Brewery in Fujinomya City!

A honjyozo called “Raku/楽/Enjoy Yourself!”

Guests including some celebrities taking their seats in all informality.

The MC of the day: Mrs. Kyouko Ishigami, a Shizuoka sake expert!

The dinner started with a vegetable and salmon trout jelly terrine and organic salad!

The salmon trout was bred by Kunugi Fish Farm and all the organic vegetables were grown by Mtsuki Bio Farm, both in Fujinomiya City!

Each producer involved in the preparation of the repast introduced their venture on the mike: Mr. Sano of Sanoman Co.

Beautiful mushroom soup with imo/taro. The mushrooms were cultivated by Mr. Hasegawa in Fuji City!

Madai/Seabream (brought from Yui, Shimizu Ku, Shizuoka City) poelee with a galette of sakura shrimps from the same harbour. The vegetables are of course from Matsuki Bio Farm and the bacon from Sanoman Co.

For a closer view!

Charcoal-grilled Izu Venison Roast from deer meat processed by the Izu City Food Processing Center!

Very French in concept! And delicious!

The representative of Fuji-Takasago Brewery in Fujinomiya City!

The dessert!

Shizuoka Fig Millefeuille with blueberry sauce!

Financier!

A very interesting dinner indeed introducing all the good ingredients from Shizuoka Prefecture!

I wonder where they are going to hold this monthly event next time!

美食, 酒, 観光, 農業, Fujieda City, Gastronomy, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka, Tourism

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Sugii Brewery-Junmai, Bodai Moto No Suke, Homare Fuji

September 4, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Sugii Brewery in Fujieda City with Takashima Brewery in Numazu City and Morimoto Brewery in Kikugawa City is a member of what I have dubbed their group the “Maverick Band”.
These three breweries have never been afraid of experimenting away from the more conservative breweries in our Prefecture.

This particular brew was made with locally grown Homare Fuji Sake rice.
As for the fermenting process it was done according to the ancient methods prevalent in the Edo Period when breweries left more responsibility to the environmental nature. The difference is that it was better controlled than in ancient times!

Rice: Homare Fuji
Rice milled down to 70%
Alcohol: 14.8 degrees
Dryness: 2.5
Acidity: 2.1
Brewed in 2010
Bottled in July 2011

Clarity: very clear
Color: Faint golden hue
Aroma: Slightly dry but fruity: banana, almonds, macadamia nuts, bitter chocolate
Body: Fluid
Taste: Strong junmai petillant attack backed up with a lot of fruit: mandarines, almonds.
Disappears with more oranges, coffee beans, bitter chocolate and dark cherries.
Junmai petillant staying strong all the way.
Ends up on an even drier note with further sips.
Takes a bit of a step back with food with an even stronger dry and acid accent.
Very complex and revealing more facets with the next sip.

Overall: Although a sake very untypical of Shizuoka Prefecture, it is a typical brew of Sugii Brewery!
A complex, surprising and very pleasant sake, best appreciated on its own at room temperature or “nurukan/lukewarm”, although a long distance away from the beaten tracks.
Difficult to categorize but so intriguing.
A true experience on a new path!

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Gastronomy, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Yamanaka Brewery-Aoitenka Tokubetsu Junmai Homare Fuji

June 27, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Homare Fuji, the local Shizuoka Sake Rice has not only become a feature in most breweries in our Prefecture, but the latter have been working hard using it in the creation of premium sake such as did Yamanaka Brewery in Kakegawa City!

These brews are really recognizable with their little label.
This tokubetsu junmai made with rice milled down to an extravagant 55% would achieve junmai ginjyou status anywhere else!

Rice: Homare Fuji
Rice milled down to 55%
Dryness: +1.5
Acidity: 1.7
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Bottled in June 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Faint golden hue
Aroma: Fruity. Banana, vanilla. Alcohol
Body: Fluid
Taste: Liquorish attack pleasurably warming the back of the palate with junmai petillant.
Complex and fruity. Starts liquorish and almost sweet to depart on a warm dry note.
Oranges and almonds. Very pleasant to drink.
Were it not for its late dry note it could become a dessert sake/wine.
Changes little with food and actually nicely complements it.

Overall: A pleasant sake to drink.
More elegant than expected, which shows all the improvement achieved by brewers with this particular strain of sake rice.
Although designed to accompany food, makes for a very pleasurable beverage on its own!

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美食, Fujieda City, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Sugii Brewery

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Suginishiki Junmai Yamahai Homare Fuji

June 7, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

The beauty of Japanese sake (like wine) is that, regardless of the same methods, same ingredients or same skills, the same brewery will not be able to reproduce exactly the same brew as the precedent year!
And when it comes to making Yamahai it is simply, and luckily to my own mind, impossible!

Sugii Brewery in Fujieda City has never been afraid to experiment.
Once again they used the Shizuoka-grown Fuji Homare rice and brewed it with a yeast not from our Prefecture to produce a very interesting Yamahai!

Sugii Brewery; Suginishiki Junmai Yamahai Fuji Homare

Rice: Homare Fuji (100% Shizuoka-grown)
Rice milled down to 70%
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Dryness: + 4.5
Acidity: 1.6
Yeast: Association No 7
Heated only once
Bottled in April 2011

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Light golden hue (normal for Yamahai)
Aroma: Dry and fruity: custard, macadamia nuts
Body: fluid and slightly syrupy
Taste: Dry fruity attack backed up by strong junmai petillant
Custard, oranges, almonds.
Stays very dry but fruity all along.
Lingers for a short while before leaving with a warm note and dry nuts.
Pleasant, although the final dry note might surprise a few people.
Changes little with food.
Further sips end with a dry note of apricots and oranges.

Overall: A sake conceived to be enjoyed with food, especially heavy izakaya food, the dry note compensating the heaviness of sauces.
Typical sake from Sugii Brewery, a favorite with food!

Must-see tasting websites:
-Sake: Tokyo Through The Drinking Glass, Tokyo Foodcast, Urban Sake, Sake World
-Wine: Palate To Pen, Warren Bobrow, Cellar Tours, Ancient Fire Wines Blog
-Beer: Good Beer & Country Boys, Another Pint, Please!
-Japanese Pottery to enjoy your favourite drinks: Yellin Yakimono Gallery

美食, sake, Sake Brewery

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Doi Brewery-Hana no Ka Homare Fuji Rice Junmai Ginjyo Nama Genshu

May 28, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

Doi Brewery has been already been producing this Hana no Ka/華の香 for the past few years according to old traditional methods
This particular brew was concocted with Homare Fuji Sake Rice grown in Shizuoka Prefecture and is the untouched product as it is nama (no sterilizing) Junmai (no alcohol added) muroka/unfiltered, a true connoisseur’s delight!

It also comes with plenty of comments: kasumi ka kumo ka nigori zake/霞か雲かにごり酒/A sake like a haze or a cloud? (referring to the presence of sakekasu/white lees!

Rice: Homare Fuji (100% Shizuoka-grown)
Rice milled down to 55%
Yeast: Shizuoka Yeast
Alcohol: 17 degrees
Bottled in March 2011

Clarity: very clear when at rest, slightly smoky when stirred
Color: Faint golden hue
Aroma: Pleasant. Alcohol. Fruity. Pineapple.
Body: fluid and siruppy
Taste: Strong alcohol and junmai petillant attack which quickly disappears.
Fruity: pineapple, custard, almonds.
Makes a complete turn from sweetish to dryish, a telltale mark of sakekasu/white lees
Lingers for a while with alcohol leaving a somewhat marked impression.
Marries and changes little with food.

Overall: A sake obviously devised for food in spite of its ginjyo status.
A sake for the connoisseurs as it is absolutely left untouched.
Great for a Japanese izakaya-style party!

藤枝市, 農業, Fujieda City, Gastronomy, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, 杉井酒造

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Sugii Brewery-Yaoyorazu Yamahai Junmai/Homarefuji Rice

April 29, 2011 dragonlife 2 Comments

There are now 19 out of 28 breweries in Shizuoka Prefecture producing brews made with locally-grown sakamai/sake rice.
Sugii Brewery in Fujieda City has been experimenting with Shizuoka-grown Homarefuji/誉富士 rice right from the very beginning.
Now, they have come up for the last couple of years with a traditional brew that a lot of other breweries avoid because of its difficulty: Yamahai/山廃!

It does have a peculiar name: Yaorazu/八百萬 that even Japanese have a hard time to read! It is an allusion to a Shinto Shrine whose history dates back to the 8th Century!

Sugii Brewery: Yaoyorazu Yamahai Junmai Homarefuji Rice/杉井酒造ー八百萬山廃純米誉富士

Rice: Homare Fuji (Shizuoka-grown)
Rice milled down to 70%
Dryness: +6
Acidity: 2.3 (vry high for Shizuoka!)
Alcohol: 15~16 degrees
Bottled in Novemwber 2010

Clarity: Very clear
Color: faint yellow hue (normal for Yamahai)
Aroma: Light, sweetish. Custard, banana, macadamia nuts
Body: Fluid
Taste: Very dry attack.
Complex: dry oranges, almonds.
Turns a little sweetish later to make a quick dry comeback.
Disappears quickly for a yamahai.
Alcohol pepping up later.
Changes little with food.

Overall: More distinguished than expected for a yamahai.
A sake designed for food? Very probably as I found it in many izakayas in Fujieda City.
Strong and solid sake.
Perfect for food, especially that in izakaya.
Can be enjoyed slowly at home with a snack!

Gastronomy, Japanese Gastronomy, sake, Sake Brewery, Shizuoka agricultural products

Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Takashima Brewery-Hakuin Masamune, Fujisan No Hi

April 10, 2011 dragonlife Leave a comment

The actual and very long name for their sake is:
Takashima Brewery, Hakuin Masamune, Heisei Nijusannen (2011), Fujisan No Hi (Mount Fuji Day), Asashibori (pressed in the morning), Homare Fuji (rice variety), Junmai (no alcohol added), Genshu (no water added), Origarami (natural pressing)!

Takashima Brewery has always been keen to create limited brews for local events and this particular one was not only made with Shizuoka-grown sake rice but also for Mount Fuji Day!

Rice: Homare Fuji 100%
Rice milled down to 60%
Alcohol: 17~18 degrees
Pressed on February 23rd, 2011

Clarity: very clear
Color: Transparent if not stirred as it contains white lees
Aroma: Sweetish, custard, banana. Very pleasant
Body: fluid, light
Taste: Sweetish attack. Complex. Welcome alcohol. Turns dry later.
Lighter but deeper than expected.
Pineapple, macadamia nuts, custard, dry almonds.
Lingers only a little with a very dry note.
Changes little with food. Especially great with fresh vegetables.
Junmai and white lees (sake kasu) very present for some extra impressions.

Overall: A very interesting sake with a more complex taste than expected.
Light enough in spite of its high alcohol content.
A sake that should please true sake lovers in search of unusual brews!