Fall can be fun, but fall can be tiring. One sake tasting after another means so much other work does not get done. The traditional fall tasting season mercifully ends soon, but making the rounds is both important and fun.

One of the last for me this year was a tasting of Yamaguchi Prefecture sake. There are 28 or so breweries there, 20 of which gathered for the event. And as I am always reminded, tasting the sake is fun, but one can learn ten times as much from chatting with the brewers. Therein lies the value and appeal of these tastings.

And at the Yamaguchi tasting the other day I made my way round to the eponymous Taka, brewed by the company called Nagayama Honke. The owner/toji Taka Nagayama himself was there to pour and greet.

I know his stuff well and zipped through them, but the last one got my attention. It was a junmai daiginjo, but made with Tojo Yamada Nishiki. While not overly assertive in flavor, the breadth and the reverb permeating the overall flavor profile were outstanding – but not surprising. Afterall, it was Tojo Yamada.

Tojo was the former name of the village in which this outstanding rice is grown, but a spate of annexations saw the town itself become annexed into another one a few years ago. So even though the town of Tojo is long gone, the term Tojo Yamada Nishiki was safely trademarked, and good thing too.

Like any agricultural product, there are certain regions and even microclimates in which each strain of sake rice will thrive. And this of course applies to what is almost universally considered to be the best sake rice, Yamada Nishiki. This variety is grown in 33 of Japan’s 47 prefectures, but the overwhelming consensus is that it grows best in Hyogo Prefecture. And deep in the mountains of this prefecture, where the days are hot and the nights are cold, is a village formerly known as Tojo, and another village named Yokawa. And it is these two areas from which the best Yamada Nishiki comes. Tojo tends to command a higher price than Yokawa, but the latter is exceptional to be sure, especially in comparison to that rice grown in other regions.

And Taka, our sake-pouring owner-toji friend from the opening paragraph, lavished praise upon Tojo Yamada. “Yeah, you can’t really top it, can you! It’s as good as it gets, and the price of the rice reflects that. But I have done a good job of keeping the retail price as low as I can so folks can enjoy it.

“And,” he continued, “what is amazing is how well it stands up to time. It basically does not hineru,” he asserted. Hineru refers to a sake starting to taste old from, well, getting old. The difference between hineru and nice maturation is a fine line, of course, but I digress.

“Even Yokawa,” he continued without being prompted, “as good as it is, that will show maturity pretty quickly; but not Tojo. That’s why I think Yokawa Yamada Nishiki might be good for super premium sake bound for overseas markets – it will remain stable for a long time,” he concluded.

The point here is not that one should drink Tojo over Yokawa, or that one region is superior to another. Those are worthwhile discussions too. But rather, what is interesting is how fundamentally different the same strain of rice can be from two regions that are so close. Tojo and Yokawa are right next to each other. They are perhaps a couple of kilometers apart; that’s all. But the slight differences in the mineral makeup of the soil and of course minute climactic differences lead to the best and second best examples of the mighty Yamada Nishiki to be noticeably and consistently different.

What is wild about this to me is that, yes, the choice of rice is connected to the final flavor profile of a sake. But that connection is not nearly as tight as the connection between the grape variety and the final flavor of the wine. Ten brewers can take the same rice, milled to the same degree, and make ten completely different sake. How the koji was made, the yeast used, the fermentation temperature and number of days, and how the sake was pressed and later handled all contribute huge differences.

Yet, in spite of all this, the basic nature of the rice will shine through, and that basic nature can be quite different on a subtle but measurable level, even for the same strain grown just a few kilometers apart.

Similar differences can, in fact, be demonstrated in other strains of rice from other parts of Japan. In fact, there are a handful of brewers now doing things like brewing sake using the rice of only one rice field, and not blending them, to make the most of the differences that invariably exist from one rice field to the next.

Surely these efforts will garner more attention as time goes on, although few will be as prominent as the tale of two Yamadas as told by Taka. It’s all fascinating stuff, and it all demonstrates how much there is to learn – and unlearn – about sake

*  *  *

Sake Professional Course

The next Sake Professional Course will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 27 to 29.  As of today, only three (3) seats remain open.

The content of this intensive sake course will be identical to that of the Sake Professional Course held each January in Japan. The course is recognized by the Sake Education Council, and those that complete it will be qualified to take the exam for Certified Sake Specialist, which will be offered on the evening of the last day of the course.

Learn more about the course here. You can read Testimonials from past participants here.

If you would like to make a reservation or to be placed on the notification list, please send an email to that purport to sakeguy@gol.com.

Recently, I saw the term “awase-koji” on a bottle of sake. It was the first time I have seen that term, and it was on a bottle produced by a company whose president is very into unique marketing. So it may be in use by other brewers too; it may not. Regardless, it is neither official nor legally defined. Not that it needs to be either…

Awase means to put two things together that loosely complement each other, or in some circumstances to force them to work together. What it refers to in this sake-related instance is yellow koji  (ki-koji), which is the standard type of koji used in making sake being blended with either white koji ( shiro koji) or black koji ( kuro-koji).

The various names are related to the final appearance of the koji and need no more explanation. More importantly, white and black koji are usually used in distilled beverages, shochu and awamori respectively, and contribute moderate to high levels of citric acid to the mix, something not found in any significant amount in yellow koji for sake.

This citric acid contributes sharpness and earthiness to the final product that is somewhere between rich and harsh, depending on your threshold for that kind of thing. So when it is used for sake – which is exceedingly rare, by the way – you can expect that sake to be earthier and decidedly sharp. It is not something that suits all styles of sake but can be delicious in the right measure.

It used to be anathema to use anything but yellow koji in sake brewing. Just the concept of black or white koji mold in the koji making room used to be unheard of, and sent shivers up and down the collective spine of the brewing staff. And, in truth, even today very few brewers do it. But those products that exist are very interesting and bold styles.

There are no rules or even tendencies among these sake in terms of black or white, or proportions of each mold used. And it is far from a trend. But such sake are out there and are worth trying should you come across one. And should the bottle say “awase koji,” you will know with what you are dealing.

I have been hanging out with a lot of toji (master brewer) lately. No particular reason, just one tasting and event after another, interacting and listening to what they have to say. Here are a couple interesting anecdotes from a couple of interesting toji.

In June, at the Iida Sake Brewing Seminar about which I wrote last month, Philip Harper, the toji at Kinoshita Shuzo on Kyoto – brewers of Tamagawa sake – talked about his take on how to make good sake. Naturally enough, there was much talk of toji. While the term translates loosely as “master brewer,” there is a lot more to it. And what is “to it” has changed over the decades.

Long ago, the toji was responsible for not only brewing the sake, but hiring, firing, and buying the rice as well. The kuramoto, or brewery owner, gave him a chunk of change and left everything in his fine hands. These days, he or she might not do all of that, but in exchange has to keep in mind the larger picture of marketing, pricing, and product differentiation.

Limiting it just to technical stuff, though, the toji of today have all kinds of modern measurement equipment at their disposal. Scales, thermometers, sensors of all kinds, and computers to combine it into a useful form from which brewers can make decisions to precisely target what they want. It’s all pretty neat, really.

But long ago, there was none of that. Fingertips were thermometers, noses and tongues were hydrometers and alcohol sensors, and brushes and ink were the computers. Sounds pretty primitive, doesn’t it?

As a point in passing, Mr. Harper mentioned something that astounded me to hear. Curious researchers noted the measurements made within the brewing process, such as temperature and moisture and many other factors, by older toji who brewed without depending on modern tools, but instead their own five senses. And these were compared to those made with modern technology.

And guess what? Lo and behold, the measurements made by the tool-less toji relying o their senses were found to be within one percent of those made by modern technological tools. Within. One. Percent. And that shows the power of experience and intuition.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last month at a Hiroshima sake lecture and tasting, Tatsuya Ishikawa, the toji at the brewery making Taketsuru sake, presented his take on being a toji, and brewing local sake in Hiroshima.

He is a strong-willed yet light-hearted individual with well formed opinions on how sake should be brewed and the importance of regionality and terroir in sake brewing. And as one point in evidence, I was surprised to hear that he applies almost no temperature control at all to his fermenting tanks of sake.

While many – if not most – brewers will chill down tanks of fermenting ginjo to minimize bacterial havoc and promote cleaner flavors, Ishikawa Toji is having none of that. He lets it run at whatever the ambient temperature in the kura is, leading to his unique sake.
“If we are going to manipulate the environment and negate the effects of the climate,” he explains, “what is the point of making local Hiroshima sake?” Indeed, his strong feelings for tradition and it significance are clear. He continued by explaining that he cannot really get behind the concept of a toji that takes too much direction from the brewery owner. Long ago, the owner did not even enter into the brewery, much less suggest to the toji what sake to brew.

But these days, it is of course normal for the owner and the toji (when they are not the same person, which they often are these days) to discuss with each other what kind of sake to brew. Not this guy. It was part of his arrangement with his employer when he took over as toji. “I brew what I want, with no well-meaning direction or influence from you or anyone else.”

As I wrote about in this newsletter a few months ago, the old guilds’ significance is waning, and their influence is not at all what it used to be. Not that this is a completely negative thing; it is just the way things have become in response to the changes of modern times. But Ishikawa-san has his opinions.

“If the boss is going to direct everything about how the sake is brewed, what is the point of having a toji? Allowing such a situation to exist defeats the purpose of having a toji in the first place, and detracts from what terroir the sake might have.”

Certainly, both philosophies have their points. Much has changed, especially market realities and environments. And adapting to these is of utmost importance. But then again, so is maintaining the important and useful aspects of tradition.

In the end, the toji of olde and the toji of today each have had their unique set of circumstances and attendant challenges. It is not really fair or even possible to directly compare them. But it sure can be interesting to try!

Sake Professional Course

The next Sake Professional Course will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada on November 27 to 29. Learn more here, and if you are interested in reserving a spot, please send me an email.

The content of this intensive sake course will be identical to that of the Sake Professional Course held each January in Japan. The course is recognized by the Sake Education Council, and those that complete it will be qualified to take the exam for Certified Sake Specialist, which will be offered on the evening of the last day of the course.

Learn more about the course here. You can read Testimonials from past participants here.

If you would like to make a reservation or to be placed on the notification list, please send an email to that purport to sakeguy@gol.com.

Three Significant Days in Sacramento, CA:   The Iida Group Sake Brewing Seminar

There was, in late June, in Sacramento California, an unprecedented event: a seminar ran by a very prominent player in the Japanese sake-making world. It was a seminar taught by Japanese master sake brewers for the 15 or so craft sake producing companies in North America. It was, as might be expected, very, very cool. The seminar was run by a company called Iida Shoji that has a significant presence in the industry, and one that is steadily growing. The company owns a few sake breweries, so they are involved at that level. But they also run a company called Shin-Nakano, which makes rice milling machines.

In fact, Shin-Nakano makes rice milling machines only for sake production, i.e. not for rice in general. So they have a niche, and they have it sewed up tightly. Interestingly, to bolster their significance as the “rice milling machine of choice” for sake brewers, they present lots of research on techniques, methods and trends for modern sake as related to rice milling. And on top of all that, the employees seem open, light-hearted, and innovative.

The event was held in Sacramento since that is where Shin-Nakano has a rice milling plant. The region produces a lot of rice, and much of that is used in sake brewing in the US, which makes four times as much sake as is imported.

Iida Shoji reached out to and garnered participation from 14 small craft brewers in the US and Canada. While the five large breweries were mostly not in attendance, I am sure they were there in spirit. Also, by my count, there were six small breweries that for one reason or another were not present. I say that to point out that there are about 20 small craft sake breweries in the US now, in various phases of existence, running from “inactive” to “kicking ass.” And most were present.

While there were tastings and a party or two, as well as a visit to a craft sake brewery in San Francisco (Sequoia Sake), as well as a massive rice milling site, the heart of the seminar was a series of lectures by three sake brewers that came over from Japan: Kosuke Kuji of Nanbu Bijin brewing their eponymous sake in Iwate, Philip Harper of Kinoshita Shuzo brewing Tamagawa sake in Kyoto, and Junpei Komatsu of Komatsu Shuzo, brewing Houjun sake in Oita. Each had a different angle, a different background, and different styles of sake.

There were also panel discussions with all three, and lectures on rice growing and distribution in the US as well.

Philip Harper is the toji (chief brewer) making Tamagawa, a rich sake with a clean finish; it is a very expressive yet traditional style. He has been brewing sake since like 1993, I think. Kosuke Kuji is the larger-than-life, with an always cheerful, vocal and energetic presence and spirit. He is the president of Nanbu Bijin, but very, very technically adept and excellent at conveying information. Junpei Komatsu restarted his brewery up after 20 years of dormancy. He began with very small batches at first, which made his perspective especially relevant to the attendees.

The seminar began with each brewer speaking in generalities about sake brewing and their observations of how everyone in North America was doing with their sake brewing. Later, it broke down into specific points and questions asked by the participants.

I am not a brewer, but hey, how could I not be there? From my slightly detached viewpoint, here were the main points. Most of these were echoed by all three lecturers, although each one emphasized different facets.

First, emphasized one brewer, figure out what kind of sake you want to brew. Don’t just try to make something drinkable, or not too bad. Decide if you want to make a rich sake, a light sake, an aromatic sake or a acid-driven wine-like sake. Or something altogether different. That will determine absolutely everything about your operation, so thnk about it well, and decide with commitment.

Next, sanitation. Be uptight, meticulous and fastidious about cleaning everything, all the time. This alone, it was emphasized, will very much improve the quality of your sake. Keep the bad bacteria out at all costs. Let the good micro organisms work in peace. (To me, this is the hugest difference between US and Japanese sake brewers.)

Also, all three emphasized that brewing will be different for each and every person at each and every venue. So you have to figure out what works for you, at your place. You have to “write your own textbook,” from experience and intention.

There were countless other small, detailed, technical questions and discussions, and what was great to me was that overall big issues like sanitation that would supersede smaller things like choice of rice or koji mold or yeast were covered, but the small and minutely detailed questions were answered as well. The balance was as fine as any great daiginjo.

The seminar was significant because it was the first time a representative of the sake industry in Japan proactively acted to help sake brewing efforts overseas. I have long observed the industry in Japan encouraging sake brewing overseas, showing interest and support. As more brewers overseas try their hand, more people will become familiar with sake and willing to try it and learn more about it. And this in turn will help the industry in Japan. It’s pretty much win-win. But this was the first time I have seen such a concrete and effective event take place. It was great.

A month later I ran into someone from Iida Shoji, one of the people most actively involved in putting the three-day seminar together. I congratulated him on its success.

“I look forward to attending next time, too!” I said.

“Hm…maybe two years from now. Not next year,” he replied.

“Oh, really? Not every year,” I teased.

A quick flash of exasperation on his face indicated just how much effort he and his company had put into it. It was clear they would need a break of about two years.His audible sigh augmented his expression.

“See you in two years.”

(Note, this is a re-post of a post that was lost in some kind of digital mishap.)

At the very beginning of July, torrential rains ravaged western Japan, in particular (but not limited to) Hiroshima Prefecture and Okayama Prefecture. Over 120 people lost their lives. The damage was close to unimaginable, and pictures and video footage of entire towns under water were commonly seen via all media. Our thoughts and prayers are with the deceased, injured, and the displaced. Recovery and cleanup will take a long, long time.

The sake industry was of course affected. While a handful of breweries in the western half of Japan were affected to varying degrees, several notable examples were widely covered.

Asahi Shuzo, the brewers of well-known Dassai, suffered a lot of damage in several ways. One of the two brewery buildings flooded, the other lost all power. Not only could no work be done, but the loss of electricity meant that all temperature control was lost, and at each stage of the process. Fortunately, though, there were no injuries to any personnel.

Initial reports mentioned a loss of a massive amount of sake that was in production, as well as huge costs and a long, long time to get back to normal. However, the company began production again 21 days later!

Also, some of the sake that was considered to be lost was actually perfectly good and tasty sake, but “just not Dassai.” So the clever company teamed up with a manga-ka (somehow “cartoonist” does not do that word true justice) to create a new, one time brand called Shima Kousaku, which Dassai will sell, and a portion of the proceeds will be used to benefit those affected by the rains. The name refers to a famous 70’s comic book (again, that translation does no real justice done to the concept of “manga”) character that excelled at making the most of difficult situations and turning them around.

Another well publicized brewery that suffered great damage was Ishii Shuzo in Takehara, Hiroshima, which brews the sake Ryusei and the sake Houju. They are fairly small, but in a well-known sake area with a well-established, wonderful and traditional style.

The kura flooded with about a meter of water, which stood in the kura for days before receding. During that time, huge empty brewing tanks floated haphazardly around the kura, and all the machinery took on water damage. When the floodwater did recede, it left slime and a layer of mud on everything – and this obviously will be extremely challenging to clean well. In a craft where sanitation is like 99 percent of everything, that will be a significant endeavor.

Several other breweries in Hiroshima were damaged, including those making Hakuko, Kansai Ichi, and Hanahato. Other breweries in other area prefectures were also affected.

In Okayama, an area in which entire towns were under deep water, Marumoto Shuzo, brewers of Chikurin sake, did not suffer much damage to the kura building itself. However, they have about 30 rice fields near the brewery in which they grow their own rice. Many of these are for organic rice, the rules and regulations of which are very, very strict. Nothing that is not approved and recorded can be brought into the rice paddy. Any person physically entering the paddy must sign in, and equipment and even boots worn must not be used for any non-organic field work.

But with the flooding, because outside water came into the paddies, the rice grown in them can no longer qualify for certified organic. Not only that, but a field has to be free of all outside influences for a full three years before the rice grown there can be certified as organic. So he has to wait three years before making organic sake with organic rice – at least from those fields. (He has some access to others.)

Interestingly enough, the rice plants themselves survived the flood to some degree.

Naturally, sake breweries were far, far from being the only enterprises affected. The damage was widespread and really hard to comprehend, even when seeing it. Let us hope for as quickly a recovery as possible for everyone affected, and support the region in any and all ways.

Should you want to provide monetary support, a bit of poking around on the internet will reveal ways to do that.

Yamada Nishiki is the king of sake rice. Not undisputed, mind you, and surely not the only game in town. But it is the most widely used sake rice by far. This is because it will cooperate; the toji can coax Yamada Nishiki to his or her preferences more easily than other sake rice varieties.

Readers likely recall that the connection between the choice of rice in the final flavor in sake is not nearly as tight as the connection between a grape varietal and the final wine. But the connection is, in fact, there. And its importance is buoyed by the above mentioned truth: that great sake rice just makes it easier to make great sake.

As such, each year, more and more Yamada Nishiki is grown. And this ends up making it good for rice growers too. Rice farming is a tough, tough business, and farmers will choose to grow rice that shows a combination of ease of growing, profitability, and liquidity on the market. Sure, some like a challenge – and some will try new rice types or less commonly seen varieties. But most rice producers have enough to think about. Since Yamada is easy to sell and many are more familiar with how to grow it, should a producer choose to mess with sake rice at all, and furthermore should the producer be in a region in which it can be grown, Yamada Nishiki is a safe choice.

What this means, though, is that some lesser known, cool varieties of sake rice are beginning to fall by the wayside. In other words, it is getting harder for brewers – not impossible, just harder – to get some less popular varieties of sake rice.

More specifically, since sake rice needs to be inspected, there needs to be inspectors on hand that maintain familiarity with each rice. With hundreds of rice strains being grown, each prefecture has a list of “recommended” strains from which rice producers can choose. Should a farmer choose one not on that list, he or she would not receive subsidies for growing it. This of course drastically lessens motivation to grow a non-recommended rice.

The above point just scratches the surface of the byzantine world of rice growing and distribution in Japan. Backing gingerly away from that deep rabbit hole, the point is that there are “lesser grown” rice varieties that are removed from the “recommended” list, making it practically impossible for local brewers to source those rice strains.

Of course, the Agricultural Cooperatives behind this have their rationale. If only one farmer is growing only one field of a rice strain for just one sake brewer making one tank, it is simply infeasible and unreasonable to expect the powers that be to maintain that varietal on the inspection list. We all have to prioritize. Point being, there are no bad guys here. It is what it is. But I digress.

As one case in point, a brewer about whom I wrote last month explained at a tasting of his sake that two products of his had been discontinued, those being sake made with Yamadaho rice and Tankan Wataribune rice. Why discontinued? Because the local Agricultural Co-op had taken them off the recommended list, and so no one in the prefecture wanted to grow them.

While they did not, obviously, constitute a major part of that kura’s production, it is still kind of a drag. Why? Because Yamadaho and Tankan Wataribune are the parents of Yamadanishiki. They were crossbred in 1936 in Hyogo Prefecture, and the result was the most widely used sake rice today. And it was cool to have available from the same kura a sake made with each parent, and one made from the child. It made for very cool comparative tasting. But alas; those days are gone.

What is not clear is whether or not this is the harbinger of a bigger problem, or if it is just an isolated anomaly. Will other lesser known rice varietals become harder to get? Or is this just something that happened in Miyagi Prefecture one time? Something tells me that it will be a reality somewhere between these two extremes. Let us keep our attention piqued.

Sake Professional Course

The next Sake Professional Course will be held in Miami, Florida in September.

The content of this intensive sake course will be identical to that of the Sake Professional Course held each January in Japan. The course is recognized by the Sake Education Council, and those that complete it will be qualified to take the exam for Certified Sake Specialist, which will be offered on the evening of the last day of the course.

You can read Testimonials from past participants here.

If you would like to make a reservation or to be placed on the notification list, please send an email to that purport to sakeguy@gol.com.

In May and early June, there was a spate of tasting competitions held in and out of Japan, many of which are significant in both scale, and potential impact. These competitions have usually hundreds of sake that are blindly judged by dozens of judges, and the results are made public. This happens across several media, both electronic and printed, and several of the organizations provide stickers for the producers to further promote the winning sake.

While such results are not the only way to select sake, and in fact are arguably not even close to the best way, these contests do an outstanding job of at least one thing: they draw attention to sake as a super-premium beverage worthy of assessing at the highest level by experienced professionals.

Let us look at four such contests (in the chronological order in which they took place), with a bit of information about each, and links to the results as well.

“The Nationals” in Japan

In May, the sake industry held the 106^th (!) running of the Zenkoku Shinshu Kampyoukai, or “National New Sake Tasting Competition,” which has the official English translation of the “Japan Sake Awards.” While my unofficial translation above is certainly more descriptive, the nature of the contest should be clear.

Interestingly, at 106, it is the longest running competition of its kind anywhere in the world. For all but the last few of those it was run by the government itself with the goal having always been helping brewers improve their skills. The last few years, the body running it has been semi-privatized.

Those interested can find more information in the archives of this newsletter (which go back to 1999!), in particular in the June or July editions for each year.

The sake submitted to this contest by the brewers is not stuff you can normally buy, but rather daiginjo or junmai daiginjo made specifically for this contest. It is brewed to have a minimum of faults, but still seem unique and special. I often refer to it as “daiginjo on steroids.”

Just about two-thirds of Japan’s sakagura submitted an entry to the contest, for a total of 850 entries. Each company is allowed to submit one sake per brewing license, i.e. one per brewing facility owned. Some larger companies own more than one facility so they would be permitted one for each.

Almost all of it is not junmai because using the added-alcohol step brings out more aromas and flavors. But this year, 163 of the 850 submissions were junmai, up seven submissions from a year ago. It seems that at least a few more brewers are interested in trying to win with junmai sake.

Sake is tasted blind in round one, and about half make it to round two. They are then tasted blind again, and about half of these will be designated as gold, the rest that made it into the second round are designated as prize-winners (the term “silver” is not used, although the gist is the same).

While the contest is extremely prestigious within the sake industry, it is not that commonly used in marketing as the average consumer has no idea this contest even exists.

For the eighth time in twelve years, and sixth in a row, Fukushima Prefecture won more golds than any other prefecture. This was a new record, as no prefecture has ever won the most golds for six years in a row. Just as interestingly, Hyogo Prefecture (wherein sits Nada, the Mecca of sake brewing) was number two. As has been the case for the past decade, the entire Tohoku region did very, very well.

While the sake submitted is not usually sake destined for the market, the flavors, aromas, styles and leading prefectures are a harbinger of where sake is currently headed. Therein lies the contest’s appeal.

There is so much to be said about this competition: the changes over the years, the politics, the history, the records, and more. Much of that can be dug up in the archives of this newsletter, but more importantly it seems as though amidst today’s sake popularity, more brewers and consumers as well are showing an interest in this historically and culturally significant competition.

You can see the results in Japanese here and in English here.

IWC in Japan

From May 13^th to May 16^th, the 10^th International Wine Challenge 2018 Sake Competition was held in Yamagata Prefecture. This was the third time the event was held in Japan, away from its usual home of London.

This contest sees sake judged in panels, with discussion amongst the judges to ensure general consensus. It is a great way to help raise more experienced sake judges all over the world. Also, the results are marketed wonderfully and glamorously, furthering sake promotion efforts.

Sake is judged in one of nine categories: futsuu-shu (regular sake, i.e. non-premium sake), honjozo-shu, junmai-shu, ginjo-shu, junmai ginjo-shu, daiginjo-shu, junmai daiginjo-shu, koshu (aged sake) and sparkling sake. That is a lot of tasting, and it took us three and a half days to work through it all in the multiple rounds that were called for. Judges are encouraged to judge a sake as a representative of the grade in which it was submitted, meaning it cannot be overly ostentatious if not of a grade that is expected to demonstrate that. (In other words, super fruity honjozo, for example, would get dinged for that character.)

Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals are awarded, with sake that is good but not quite of medal quality receiving a Commended award. Producers that choose to can affix little labels to their bottles advertising those accolades.

Complete results in Japanese can be found here: http://www.sakesamurai.jp/iwc18_medal.html

The list of all medal winners and commended sake can be found in English here : www.internationalwinechallenge.com/canopy/search.php#tabs1-sake. If you click on “Search for a Sake” the entire list of Medal and Commended sake comes up, in alphabetical order.

Also, the trophy winners (only; not all medal winners) for each category are here in English (near the bottom of the page – because the best is saved for last!): https://www.internationalwinechallenge.com/trophy-results-2018.html

Hasegawa Saketen “Sake Competition”

Next – at least chronologically – is the Hasegawa Saketen “Sake Competiton.” Hasegawa Saketen is a large and well known sake distributor and retailer in Japan that has for ten years or so ran a sake competition of its own. The sake submitted is all market sake – nothing specially brewed. And the judges are industry people – brewers, toji, owners, and folks like myself. There are two rounds held two days apart.

Just like the Japan Sake Awards mentioned above, each judge assesses alone, with no input or influence permitted, and no discussion amongst judges either.

This year, it was held right after the IWC mentioned above. That was challenging. Furthermore, in the second round there are over 500 sake to be tasted – by each judge – in one day. It’s a marathon.

Yet, at the same time, the contest is on the up-and-up, and worthwhile to participate in, and the results are useful as well. Interestingly, the same sake seem to be popping up at the top each year, with a few changing in and out. And these are mostly well known, prized sake. The results of the blind-tasting contest, then, seem to uphold the popularity of those sake.

The gold medal results in English are here: https://sakecompetition.com/?page_id=1647 Poking around the English header will lead to more about the contest, and also, there is plenty about the competition on that site in Japanese as well.

US National Sake Appraisal

Last but by no means least is the 2018 US National Sake Appraisal, held in June this year (although usually it is held in August). This contest takes place in Hawaii with a mix of judges, some from Japan and some from the US and other countries. The judges from Japan are from the National Research Institute of Brewing, and various prefectures around Japan. All are quite esteemed.

This judging too takes place just as it does in the Japan Sake Awards; in other words, each judge tastes on his or her own, with no discussion. Results are tallied as an average of all judges’ scores.

The classifications for judging are a bit different, and are more focused on the milling rate than whether or not they are junmai style or not. So Junmai is one grouping, Jumai Ginjo and (non-junmai, i.e. added alcohol) ginjo are together as another group, Daiginjo A – in which the milling is 40% or less (i.e. 35%, 38%), and Daiginjo B for which the milling is between 50% and 40%. This is certainly a slightly different take, and a very valid one for sure.

These sake are then taken on a road show, being presented at the Joy of Sake events which this year are to be held in New York (just finished!), Honolulu in July, London in September and Tokyo in November. If you are anywhere near one of these cities at those times, be sure to check the party out. The results have been made public, and you can see the top winner in each category, and the medal winners for each as well here: http://www.sakeappraisal.org/en/appraisal-2018.html

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There are other competitions too, and there will be more popping up. Of this I am quite sure. These are just the most visible. The results are extremely interesting, and if you want to make things even more interesting, take the time to look across the results of each of the above and see what names keep popping up; that tells us a lot. I’m just sayin’.

After having judged in three out of these four this year, and all of them at one time or another, there are a couple of thoughts about these competitions.

First and foremost, they all attract attention to quality sake, and the fact that sake is worthy of being assessed by beverage professionals from around the world. This is an unequivocally good thing!

In truth, though, only certain styles or types of sake will do well through. Those that do are, of course, worthy and deserving for sure. But in these contests, sake is tasted on its own, with no food, no friends, no ambiance suffusing the situation. Sake that has any semblance of quirky or idiosyncratic character will not likely win a medal in any of these. Often, such characteristics can be extremely appealing. But sake that is not a part of the orthodox clean light ginjo borg does not have much of a chance. And it is what it is.

In the end, it’s a good tradeoff. The sake that receive awards are all great sake, and the contests draw attention to sake. That’s enough, at least for now, methinks.

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No Sake Stone Remains Left Unturned!

From Monday August 13 to Wednesday August 15, 2018, I will hold the 30th North American running of the Sake Professional Course at at the Miami Culinary Institute in Miami, Florida. The course will run 9-5 all three days. The cost for the course, all materials, and the right to take the exam for Certified Sake Professional certification is $899. Learn more here. Interested? Please email me at sakeguy@gol.com .

Each year, the month of April is chock full o’ sake tastings, both industry-focused and consumer-oriented. Usually these are run by distributors with dozens of brewers that each have a range of products to taste and about which to ask questions. Sometimes there are two in one day; and one can easily taste hundreds of sake in that eight hour period. It is exhausting, but important.

Far more important to me than actually tasting all those sake is interacting with the representatives from the kura, be they brewing personnel, or company directors. The information exchange is invaluable. Via such discussions, we can learn how this year’s rice is behaving, how the weather affected that, what new rice or yeast did they start or stop using, and what else affected how this year’s sake will turn out. Then, we can taste and confirm all that.

Groups and gangs of sake promotions notwithstanding, one of the tastings I look forward to each year is held by one brewer only, Hirako Shuzo of Miyagi Prefecture, the brewers of Hitakami sake, and run by the president Takahiro Hirai. I enjoy this particular tasting so much since Hirai-san, with whom I have been friends for a long, long time, likes to talk. He prepares a short presentation on much that transpired over the last year, and about the sake we are about to taste. And it is always educational.

The tasting itself is primarily for retailers and restaurant staff, and is held in a small, simple room in the building of his Tokyo distributor, in a drab but old and classic Tokyo neighborhood. Large bottles of this year’s brew are lined up on long, narrow tables, flanked with spittoons every meter or two.

Each bottle is labeled with the number of the tank from whence it came. The handout received upon entering gives us the necessary information: “Tank #37, Junmai-shu, Hitomebore rice milled to 60%, Miyagi Yeast, Nama Genshu, Nihonshudo 5, Acidity, 1.5”, and maybe a comment or two on what might be special. And so on down the line. Furthermore, we were given the date on which the sake was pressed, i.e. the day fermentation ended.

As we taste, every hour or so he sits everyone down and explains a handful of things. Hirai-san has a knack for saying interesting things to a fairly educated audience, and he did not disappoint this year. Admittedly, he goes a bit deeper than even the average sake geek might be interested. But hey.

The summer was a comparatively cold one, or at least not so hot. This means that the rice ends up softer, which in turn means it dissolves more quickly than hard rice. If the rice does not dissolve well, the sake will be short on flavor and richness. But the other side of the coin is that soft rice can dissolve too quickly and uncontrollably, and that leads to sloppy, cloying and rough flavors. So, in short, an expectation of soft rice makes brewers nervous. And that effects how they process the rice.

In particular, it affects how they soak the rice before steaming. If rice is expected to dissolve quickly, this can be countered by limiting the amount of water it is permitted to absorb. This will slow down the speed of dissolution.

To make matters even more challenging, when the weather is cold like it was this past summer, there is a lack of uniformity in the rice in terms of how fast it absorbs water. So some grains absorb too quickly, others just right, and others not at all. This makes it hard for brewers to control how it dissolves during the month-odd fermentation, since some grains have absorbed more water than others due to that lack of uniformity.Hirai-san explained their countermeasures.

“In short, we were cautious; in fact, we erred on the side of caution. So we did not let the rice absorb enough water, and the sake flavors were too tight, and not quite rich enough. And, so, we countered that in turn by letting the sake sit longer before pasteurizing it. In so doing, enzymes remaining from the koji convert left-over starch molecules to sugar; furthermore, the flavor gets richer and more umami laden in general.”

Enzymes are deactivated by heat, so as long as they do not pasteurize the sake, the enzymes will still do their job – however, they only function in a narrow temperature range. So too cold and they do not work, but too hot and they are deactivated forever.

“The tricky part,” continues Hirai-san, “was that once we measured and tasted and knew the flavor was where we wanted it, we needed to get the enzymes to cease and desist. The problem is, we have a ton of sake that needs to be pasteurized more or less all at once. We simply cannot pasteurize fast enough in those situations; but the sake does not care! It will keep on changin’.

“So the way to do that is to lower the temperature to the point where the enzymes simply do nothing. As recently as 25 years ago, this would not have been practical. But now, we can control that pretty precisely. Modern-day refrigerated tanks make that possible,” he wrapped up.

A week later, I ran into him at another tasting, where he was one of perhaps 30 other kuramoto present that day. We returned briefly to our conversation above, what which point he warned me, “amongst these sake here today, this year you will find extremes. Some will be rough-n-tumble, others too narrow and rigid. Either too much flavor or not enough. This belies the year’s rice, its lack of uniformity, and the reticence it fosters in the brewing staff!”

What this all illustrates so well is the complexity of the sake brewing process, how important the post-fermentation steps are, and just how much one can learn with a few pre-sipping questions.

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Sake Professional Course

The next Sake Professional Course will be held in Miami, Florida in September.

The content of this intensive sake course will be identical to that of the Sake Professional Course held each January in Japan. The course is recognized by the Sake Education Council, and those that complete it will be qualified to take the exam for Certified Sake Specialist, which will be offered on the evening of the last day of the course.

You can read Testimonials from past participants here.

If you would like to make a reservation or to be placed on the notification list, please send an email to that purport to sakeguy@gol.com.

In just about any educational material about sake, we read or hear that the main difference between premium grades of sake like ginjo-shu and regular non-premium sake is the milling of the rice. Specifically, for ginjo sake the rice has been milled much more, and down to a specified degree before brewing. The more the rice is milled, the higher the grade of sake. Short and sweet, and easy to remember. Yeppir.

While true, beneath the surface of that truth is another, and that is that rice milling is just the tip of the iceberg. In reality, there are a gazillion little things that are done differently in the processes used to make premium sake versus regular sake. At least a gazillion.

Of course, the milling is, in fact, very important. This removes the fat and protein that are found in the outer regions of the rice grains, leaving a higher ratio of starch, and leading to a more refined sake.

But how, beyond the milling, does brewing ginjo differ from brewing regular sake? Basically at every step of the process. Each step is done with increased attention to detail that adds a bit more quality with each successive step, leading to a significantly better sake in the end.

Concretely, what changes? For example…

Once the rice is milled, it is soaked and then washed to remove the clinging rice powder, and to adjust the moisture content. For cheap sake, the rice will be washed and soaked in fairly large vats and lots; that will get almost all the powder off and get the moisture content into the ballpark in a fairly efficient way.

Precision Soaking

But for ginjo brewing they wash the rice even more thoroughly, and soak in much smaller lots to attain uniformity of moisture across each grain in the batch, and also to get that moisture content to within a half a percent of target. While that was easy to write for me, it is not easy to accomplish. Do not let the significance of that precision be lost on you.

Doing that every single day to a ton or rice at one time takes skill, experience, and attention to detail. In fact, washing and soaking may be the one step where the difference is the most visible to us mortals.

And this lunacy continues with each step. Steamed rice for regular sake goes along a conveyor belt and cold air is blasted through it, but for ginjo, often it is spread out on straw mats to cool down slowly and naturally. The difference in the effort expended is huge. It is almost as if the sake gods conspired to ensure that the more hassle-laden the work is, the better the sake will be.

While less visible, koji-making is where it really gets nuts. Koji, that moldy rice that supplies enzymes for saccharification, as well as much so much flavor-augmenting amino acids, can be made using machines, and/or in huge-ass lots in which the moisture and temperature are not consistent throughout. But for ginjo, koji is often made in trays as small as 1.5 kilos, and then checked every two hours across the 48 or so hours it takes to make. Every. Two. Hours. This helps ensure that every single grain of rice sees the same temperature and humidity, and provides the same enzymatic power.

On to the yeast starter: Ginjo is usually made with different yeast strains, and in yeast-starter rooms that are kept much colder than average to thwart wayward bacteria from proliferating.

Next, fermentation itself. In short, regular sake is fermented in large tanks leading to large yields with large efficiency. Ginjo is always made in smaller tanks, as it is easier to keep the temperature consistent across the whole mash. With a huge tank, the temperature in the center of the mash will not be the same at the bottom, top or sides of the tank. Ginjo tanks will be jacketed too, with coolant running through those jackets at the flip of a sensor-driven switch to help keep temperature appropriately low no matter how warm or cold it is outside.

Extreme Method of Pressing: by drip

But wait! There’s more! Once fermentation is complete, the sake is pressed to remove the rice lees. This can be done in a handful of ways, some mundane yet good and some extravagant. You have likely surmised by now that ginjo is made using the much more extravagant, low-yield, hassle laden methods. Even when pressing by machine, a recent trend is to put the whole kit-n-kaboodle inside a refrigerated room to eliminate the activity of bacteria that can damage aromas.

Pasteurization for cheap sake is done roughly and quickly, with stability being the goal. Ginjo is pasteurized in one of a handful of methods each with a handful more variations that try to ensure stability but retain liveliness. Not only is the method important but the timing is paramount as well. For regular sake, such attention to detail is simply not justifiable.

Each one of these adds just a bit to the mix and that incrementally leads to better ginjo. And all of the explanations of each one of the steps above could have been expounded upon ad nauseum to further illustrate the point. But I figured readers have a few better things to read; and you all likely get the point.

Interestingly, all of this has trickled down to once lowly junmai-shu. In other words, the junmai-shu of today is brewed using the ginjo techniques described above, whereas a few decades ago it was more commonly brewed in basically the same way as cheap futsuushu (regular sake). The methods, tools, and attention to detail were the same as very cheap sake; only the milling of the rice and the addition of distilled alcohol were different.

As such, the junmai-shu of just a few decades ago rarely boasted the fine lines of distinction that much of today’s junmai offers. While it was hardly rough stuff, it was not nearly as smooth, genteel, lively or aromatic as the average junmai-shu today – which tends to push the ginjo envelope.

Gentle Pasteurization

Some less than optimal flavors and aromatics can be particularly pronounced in just-brewed sake; so a bit of maturity – like six months to a year – works wonders in mellowing and melding the various elements. Pasteurization also helps in taking the edge off. As such, the junmai of olde was rarely drunk young, or nama (unpasteurized). It just wasn’t enjoyable enough in that just-pressed state.

But these days, junmai-shu is much more light, aromatic, soft, refined and layered. In fact, of late, the term “fruity” lends itself to many a junmai-shu description. In particular, banana and melon. And much junmai – as well as ginjo – can now be enjoyed very soon after brewing, and as nama too. This evolution is a result of it being made much more like lofty ginjo-shu and daiginjo-shu, and less like plebian futsuu-shu.

Note, though, that not all brewers are making junmai-shu in these ginjo-esque ways. And there are increasingly glaringly obvious differences between the dos and the do-nots. But certainly the basic visible trend is that junmai-shu has approached ginjo-shu and left futsuu-shu behind.

In truth, it is not as clear cut as the above. Not all regular sake is made in the rough ways, and not all ginjo is made using every one of the precision-driven steps above. But in general, the differences are as laid out here.

Both junmai-shu styles and ginjo-shu styles (including daiginjo styles, i.e. “ginjo to die for”) have been evolving for 40 years, and will continue to do so. And that evolution will take place in countless small ways, mostly outside of the milling process. So yes, it is about the milling of the rice, but it is about so much more as well.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sake Professional Course

The next Sake Professional Course will be held in Miami, Florida in September.

The content of this intensive sake course will be identical to that of the Sake Professional Course held each January in Japan. The course is recognized by the Sake Education Council, and those that complete it will be qualified to take the exam for Certified Sake Specialist, which will be offered on the evening of the last day of the course.

You can read Testimonials from past participants here.

If you would like to make a reservation or to be placed on the notification list, please send an email to that purport to sakeguy@gol.com.

Men at Work at Rihaku Brewery

Certainly, change pretty much defines our world today, and the sake brewing world is not excepted from that truth. In particular, the changes within the sake world over the last 30 years in who actually does the brewing are pretty astounding.

There is one master brewer per brewery, and that person is called the toji. Almost always this was – and is – man, but currently perhaps 40 or 50 out of the 1100 or 1200 active kura have a toji that is a woman.

But long ago – and not so long ago – the toji in any given brewery was dispatched from his guild in the countryside. There were about 30 to 35 toji guilds across Japan long ago, although many of them are now defunct as their membership declined along with the number of breweries.

But back in the day, the toji was a seasonal employee. He may have worked at the same brewery every year for decades and decades, but each year was a new, one-year contract. Originally, the toji would receive a chunk of money from the brewery owner, and he would hire and pay everyone else, buy the rice, and just get the job done. That was not really a hard and fast rule, but even as recently as 30 years ago, most breweries in the industry were run by seasonally employed toji.

Slowly things changed. The need for year-round employment led to changes that included toji and brewing staff more commonly becoming year-round employees of the brewing company, replete with the benefits, like a paycheck in twelve rather than only six months of the year. When not brewing, other tasks could be handled, or hours could be seasonally juggled.

Another change included members of the brewery-owning family to take over the brewing themselves. Sometimes this was out of interest and passion, other times out of necessity. It is hard to run a small family business when all of the technical skill for creating your product is in the hands of someone that is but a seasonal hire, and not even a member of the family.

So what this led to is basically three genre of toji: those there are only seasonally employed toji from one of the guilds, toji that are year-round company employees, and toji that are family members. Note, too, that there is some overlap. Toji coming in from the countryside can be from the traditional guilds, but still be full-time employees (not just seasonal employees). And conversely, family members and local hires can be associated with one of the guilds in the boonies, for educational and informational exchange and support.

With that as the background, let us look at some very interesting numbers.

Thirty-two years ago, in 1986, 74 percent of the toji in the (then, much larger) industry were seasonal hires, not full-time employees. In 1996, a scant 10 years hence, that number had dropped to 62 percent. In 2006 it had dropped to 35.5 percent, and in 2016 it was down to only 16 percent of all breweries in the industry that had seasonally employed toji from the traditional guilds. Wow.

Note that this is not necessarily a bad thing; it is just … different. The industry is half the size of what it was back then, and the percentage of toji that are seasonal employees is a quarter of what it used to be. And whether or not a toji is seasonally hired or not has no direct influence on his or her skills, nor the quality of the sake. I’m just sayin’.

Looking at the other side of the toji coin, in 1986 only 12 percent of the toji in the industry had secure, year-round employment with the company. Sparing you the gory details of the decades in between, toji that are year-round full time employees went from that to 38 percent in 2016. And toji that are a member of the owning family went from a mere 14 percent in ’86 to a whopping 47 percent in 2016.

What this means, at a glance, is that almost half of the 1100 to 1200 sake breweries active today have family members in charge of the brewing operations.

Again, bear in mind there are several dynamics at work simultaneously, and that looking at the above number alone will not lead to any firm conclusion. One thing that has led to this is a very positive thing: the availability of reference material, education opportunities, and the infrastructure that allows almost instant communication. No longer does a brewery-owning family need to rely on an old codger from the boonies with a thick country accent. Just send the kids to brewing school, and keep in touch with friends running other breweries. That flow of information, and lots of patience and experience, is very commonly how sake is brewed in this modern era.

Nevertheless, it is interesting, and surely, there are at least a few out there that will feel a nostalgic pang at the decline and loss of the tradition-laden historical guilds, myself included.

Learn much, much more about toji guilds here.

For those that are interested, the brewery workers under the toji are called kurabito, the brewery-owning family and family members are called kuramoto, and the brewery itself is a kura or sakagura.

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The Sake Professional Course scheduled for April 23 to 25 in Brooklyn New York is full. Thanks to all those that signed up! The next one will be in Miami in September. If interested, please send an email to that purport to sakeguy @ gol.com. Learn more about the Sake Professional Course here.