Shizuoka Sake Tasting: Takashima Brewery-Hakuin Masamune Junmai Dai Ginjo 23 Brewing Year

Takashima Brewery has produced another extravagant beauty!

This time the label has turned into a calligraphy lesson!

It is a junmai dai ginjo, the very top of the scale, and also a genshu/no pure water added!
A venture into purity!

Rice: Yamada Nishiki (Hyogo Prefecture)
Rice milled down to 40%
Alcohol: 16~17 degrees
Brewed in 2012
Bottled in November 2013

Clarity: Very clear
Color: Light golden hue
Aroma: Assertive, fruity, elegant. Custard, faint bananas.
Body: Fluid
Taste: Soft, dry and fruity attack backed up with puissant junmai petillant.
Complex. Custard, oranges, late appearance of dark chocolate.
Softer than expected in spite of its genshu high alcohol contents.
Disappears fairly quickly with hints of dry almonds
Elegant. Stays true all the time.
Takes a drier turn with food revealing hints of almonds and mandarines.
Will turn back to its original facets after a little while once away from food again.

Overall: An extravagant sake!
So elegant and surprisingly easy to drink in spite of its alcohol contents.
Although it superbly marries with any food, it should be drunk alone for its own value.
Don’t even drink it as a superb aperitif, but enjoy it as a late night cap, reading an absorbing book, watching a great movie or in the arms of your beloved one.
Of course a sake to introduce to a special company of connoisseurs!

RECOMMENDED RELATED WEBSITES

So Good Sushi Restaurant in Nice France
Navigating Nagoya by Paige, Shop with Intent by Debbie, BULA KANA in Fiji, Kraemer’s Culinary blog by Frank Kraemer in New York,Tokyo Food File by Robbie Swinnerton, Green Tea Club by Satoshi Nihonyanagi in Shizuoka!, Mind Some by Tina in Taiwan, Le Manger by Camille Oger (French), The Indian Tourist, Masala Herb by Helene Dsouza in Goa, India, Mummy I Can Cook! by Shu Han in London, Pierre.Cuisine, Francescannotwrite, My White Kitchen, Foodhoe, Chucks Eats, Things that Fizz & Stuff, Five Euro Food by Charles,Red Shallot Kitchen by Priscilla,With a Glass, Nami | Just One Cookbook, Peach Farm Studio, Clumsyfingers by Xethia, PepperBento, Hapabento, Kitchen Cow, Lunch In A Box, Susan at Arkonlite, Vegan Lunch Box; Tokyo Tom Baker, Daily Food Porn/Osaka, Only Nature Food Porn, Happy Little Bento, J-Mama’s Kitchen, Cook, Eat, Play, Repeat, Bento Lunch Blog (German), Adventures In Bento, Anna The Red’s Bento Factory, Ohayo Bento,