More and more people around the world are becoming increasingly interested in sake, more aware of the craftsmanship and nuances to be found in Japan’s national drink. But what is sake?
Sake literally just means alcohol in Japanese, including shochu, beer and wine, but what we know as sake is typically called nihonshu in Japanese. This means Japanese alcohol and although it is sometimes called a rice wine, its production process is actually closer to that of beer. Sake is surprisingly versatile, with terroir, rice varietal, production method and more influencing the end result as much as it would a French wine.
Sake and sushi in Tokyo
So what should you know when choosing a sake? Keep an eye out for the polishing percentage. This refers to how much of the rice has been milled away, leaving just the white core. All rice starts as brown rice and to make it white, you’ll typically need about 90% of the rice. The percentage here refers to the percentage remaining, with a lower percentage indicating that the sake will likely have a cleaner, more delicate taste. To start making fine sake, this number starts to be at around 70%. Most sake will be polished around 70% and 93%, which is categorised as futsushu, something akin to table wine.
Sake brewery in Kyoto
Ginjo sakes are more refined, with 60% remaining, and daiginjo are the most refined starting at 50%. These can go down very low indeed, even down to around 20%. This being said, the rice varietal itself and the quality of the ingredients also have a massive effect, so it’s not enough to just mill bad rice down to 20% before using it to produce sake through koji mould and fermentation.
Another key term to look out for is junmai, which means ‘pure rice’ typically milled to 70%. This means that it’s produced only using rice, water, yeast and koji. These typically taste more savoury with a full body. Some that don’t state they’re junmai may add sugar or stronger alcohol. This doesn’t meant that you can’t get non-junmai sakes that aren’t great, with honjozo sakes adding a small amount of brewer’s alcohol to round out the taste, resulting in an easy-drinking product.
Sake tasting
As mentioned above, ginjo and daiginjo sakes are premier sakes that are typically lighter and served chilled, with daiginjo having highly sought-after complex flavours. Other types to look out for include nigori, which is cloudy unfiltered sweet sake, nama-zake, which is unpasteurised sake, and infused sakes.
A large myth surrounding sake is that it needs to be served warm. This really depends on the sake and a general rule of thumb is to serve less polished sakes warmer to bring out the earthy notes while more refined sakes should be chilled to accentuate the fruitier more floral flavours. This does depend enormously on your preference and part of the fun is just experimenting.
Sake offerings for the gods
If you’re travelling to Japan and are interested in sake, we suggest visiting a sake bar and trying a tasting flight.
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