Simeon Paterson dives into a sea of sake and discovers it’s cool to be clear.

With over 400 kinds of sake from over 80 breweries on tap at Tokyo’s annual sake extravaganza, fans of the rice stuff are set to indulge in some of the nations best brews. Not so long ago sake was so synonymous with liquor-so much that the same word denoted both the drink itself and all alcohol-but while wine, beer and cocktails have eaten into nihonshu’s numbers premium sake is fighting back. Driving the renaissance are choosier customers and an industry is pushing exports and injecting youth into a very old drink with sexy advertising. But it’s not all business-brewers actually drink the stuff too, and on Wednesday so can you.
On the 24, the Akasaka Prince Hotel will host the Japan Ginjoshu (sake) Association’s annual get together, where members can attend doubtless fascinating seminars on topics like “How to Heat Ginjoshu” from a ginjoshu university (yes, there is a sake university) professor. Rather more fun and open to all however is the two-hour tasting at 5:30pm where the ¥4000 entrance fee also gets you a complimentary bottle of ginjoshu. The Association also organizes a spring Tokyo event and the Hiroshima kanpyokai sake competition but the autumn do is the biggest Tokyo event and showcases more representative sake (the competition sake is often not commercially available). There is also less nama (unpasturised) sake and more developed brews on offer because the sake has had a few months to mature after Spring production, making this event the year’s best chance to sift the wheat (rice?) from the chaff.

Drink your greens
Sake from cooler and more natural regions such as Nagano and Niigata has always been amongst the best. The lower temperatures are ideal for sake production and the natural environment, particularly the pure spring water, improves the taste. As pollution increases however so is concern that sake production will be adversely affected. Ironically, one of Japan’s most conservative industries is starting to think green. This year’s big news is the attempt by the industry to try and preserve Kame no O, a pure strain of rice discovered relatively recently and uncontaminated by cross breeding or genetic engineering. Several breweries have pledged to ensure the rice is still used in production and the sake world is taking an active interest in their success. While many excellent strains of rice have been developed in labs, most famously the Yamadanishiki rice used to make many premium sake, brewers are now recognizing the importance of preserving genetic diversity as well as the value of a distinctive product in an increasingly choosy market.

Rice stuff
Fortunately the increasing popularity of traditional production methods, similar to the microbrew beer phenomenon in the West, hasn’t led to the clock being turned back too far. The earliest sake was made by people chewing rice, millet and chestnuts and then spitting it into a vat to ferment. Nowadays, the brew is a lot stronger thanks to yeast and Second World War rules that alcohol and sugar be added to the mix to increase yield. The key ingredient has also improved. Sake rice has a high starch content, enabling it to stay intact while fermenting so that the outer protein and oil is removed. It’s then washed, soaked, steamed and Koji rice (containing the mould essential to starting the process) is added to turn the rice into sugar, which the yeast turns into alcohol. After around three weeks fermentation, the mix is usually filtered, skimmed, pasteurized…

…and then drunk
After deciding which of the myriad types of sake you will have, you are faced with another choice: atsukan (or kansake), which is warm, or reishu (or hisake), which isn’t. Warming-only to skin temperature, mind you-is not usually recommended for quality sake. Much like over-cooling beer, warming can mask certain flavors, although a few kinds of sake are enhanced by it. Finding out which is which gives you the excuse to taste both types. Experts taste sake by checking the color in a special glass, choosing one of 90 official words to describe the smell, sipping the sake then sucking in a little air and breathing it out through the nose to appreciate the fragrance. They then spit it out. Tasting for beginners is more fun: take a swig, swallow, repeat. Amazingly, the number of beginners tends to increase as tastings wears on. One man more than familiar with both versions is Association member Skip Taylor. A tall, black, ninjitsu studying Junior High teacher, he hardly fits the ojisan sake buff stereotype, but on one point he is spot on: “Sake is too good for the Japanese alone. The rest of the world deserves a taste for it too.” Kampai!

Japan Ginjoshu Association Tasting, Shinkan 2F Crystal Palace, Akasaka Prince Hotel, Kioicho 1-2, Chiyoda-ku. Information (in Japanese) about the event and the Japan Ginjo-shu Association is available at Nihon Ginjo-shu Kyokai, Cent Hills Yoyogi 1302, 1-55-14Yoyogi, Shibuya-ku. Tel: 3378-1231, fax: 3378-1232.