A lot of people often ask me why sake. They are usually quite intrigued. I’m not Japanese (they don’t know that sake in Japan is not that popular these days), I’ve never lived in Japan (only visited two times as a tourist), my wife is not Japanese (again, another thing that could link me to the drink, don’t know why).
I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with sake at the first sight or shall I say sip. For a long time, my drink of choice was wine or beer. I love German Riesling, I enjoyed French and Italian wines when we were going on holiday there. I like beer. Before my I breakthrough with sake a few years ago, I had tried sake a couple of times and it was ok but nothing to write home about. Then one day I’ve got an email from a good friend of mine, who is also fascinated by Japan, inviting me to a sake tasting.
Episode's Content:
Kampai!
Sake mentioned:
Dassai 45
Dassai 39
Dassai 23
Dassai Beyond
Asahi Shuzo
Sugidama Blog
Music used:
Wirklich Wichtig (CB 27) by Checkie Brown https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Checkie_Brown_1005/hey/Wirklich_Wichtig_CB_27
Just Arround the World (Kielokaz ID 362) by KieLoKaz
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/KieLoKaz/Free_Ganymed/Just_Arround_the_World_Kielokaz_ID_362
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Vocal: Svetlana
A lot of people often ask me why sake. They are usually quite intrigued. I’m not Japanese (they don’t know that sake in Japan is not that popular these days), I’ve never lived in Japan (only visited two times as a tourist), my wife is not Japanese (again, another thing that could link me to the drink, don’t know why).
I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with sake at the first sight or shall I say sip. For a long time, my drink of choice was wine or beer. I love German Riesling, I enjoyed French and Italian wines when we were going on holiday there. I like beer. Before my I breakthrough with sake a few years ago, I had tried sake a couple of times and it was ok but nothing to write home about. Then one day I’ve got an email from a good friend of mine, who is also fascinated by Japan, inviting me to a sake tasting.
Episode's Content:
Kampai!
Sake mentioned:
Dassai 45
Dassai 39
Dassai 23
Dassai Beyond
Asahi Shuzo
Sugidama Blog
Music used:
Wirklich Wichtig (CB 27) by Checkie Brown https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Checkie_Brown_1005/hey/Wirklich_Wichtig_CB_27
Just Arround the World (Kielokaz ID 362) by KieLoKaz
https://freemusicarchive.org/music/KieLoKaz/Free_Ganymed/Just_Arround_the_World_Kielokaz_ID_362
Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
Vocal: Svetlana
Episode 05: How I learnt about sake and started to love it?
0:18
Greeting
Hey, everyone welcome to episode number 5 of Sugidama Podcast, the podcast about Japanese sake, the drink I love so much that I have started writing a blog about it, recording a podcast about it, doing live streams about it and organizing sake events, alas before the pandemic.
Today I would like to confess my love for sake, Japan, Japanese culture and Japanese people. But before that, I have a plea to make. It’s been already 4 episodes of Sugidama Podcast and I had a good uptake in downloads but it’s not enough. I want to reach as many people as I can to bring sake into their lives, to tell them how sake is beautiful and amazing and if they haven’t tried it yet, they are missing a lot.
But I really need your help. The main thing, that drives podcasts popularity are reviews. How else could you find out if a podcast is worth your time? With myriads of podcasts around on each and every topic, it’s a tough job to reach my potential listeners. So my plea is please if you like Sugidama Podcast leave a review. It shouldn’t take long but it will mean a great deal for me. You can leave your review on the platform you use to listen to podcasts like Apple, Google, Spotify, Sticher and many others. Or if you listen to the episodes from my website, you can leave a review there.
Another thing you can do to help me is to share the podcast on your social media accounts: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Tell your friends who ask you about sake about my podcast, write a blog post if you have a blog.
I also need your feedback. As you can hear, English is not my first language and I feel very vulnerable here. I have no problem speaking, making presentations, writing blog posts or analytical reports if you take my main job. But the podcast is a completely different kettle of fish. It’s quite difficult to talk smoothly for 20-30 minutes without making big pauses and losing an idea. You write up the episode beforehand, it shows and it’s often not very natural. So every time I record an episode, I feel very stressed.
So I need some encouragement! I guess if you listen to the podcast, you probably find it interesting or useful. But of course, there are many ways to improve it. Probably there are topics you are interested in and would like to hear on the podcast. Just talk to me. Again, you can put it in the comment or send me an email to alex@sugidama.co.uk. You can reach me on Twitter @sugidamablog or Instagram @sugidama_blog. I am even on Facebook @sugidamablog.
Please let me know what you think about the podcast! It’s what I really need now.
3:37
Why I like sake
Why I like sake: Taste
OK, I’ve made my plea. Let’s move on. A lot of people often ask me why sake. They are usually quite intrigued. I’m not Japanese (they don’t know that sake in Japan is not that popular these days), I’ve never lived in Japan (only visited two times as a tourist), my wife is not Japanese (again, another thing that could link me to the drink, don’t know why).
I wouldn’t say that I fell in love with sake at the first sight or shall I say sip. For a long time, my drink of choice was wine or beer. I love German Riesling, I enjoyed French and Italian wines when we were going on holiday there. I like beer. Before my I breakthrough with sake a few years ago, I had tried sake a couple of times and it was ok but nothing to write home about. Then one day I’ve got an email from a good friend of mine, who is also fascinated by Japan, inviting me to a sake tasting.
And this time it was a completely different story. It was an annual tasting of award-winning sake organised by the International Wine Challenge, which has been doing the sake competition for the last 10-15 years I believe at the Japanese Embassy in London. There were sixteen breweries presenting the best Japanese sake and I got instantly hooked, I really loved the drink. It was a true WOW moment for me.
So I was drifting from one stall to another, trying sake from different breweries and getting more and more, yes, a bit drunk but also puzzled. How come I haven’t tried such an amazing drink before. I guess the first reason why I liked sake was the taste. Sake is milder and not as acidic compared to wine and I don’t like acidity. For example, eating the fruit was always a problem for me. I have to cut them in pieces and I always complain that they are too sour. You’ve got the picture.
This is probably why I love German off-dry Riesling. For me, it has the perfect balance of acidity and sweetness in the wine. And same about sake. I loved its mild taste, balanced acidity and a bit of sweetness. Just perfect! I also was really hooked on the sake aroma, the fruitiness, yeastiness, a bit of rice notes. And again, not strong but very gentle.
6:11
Why I like sake: Shibumi
However, the taste was only my first step into this wondrous world of sake. There was something in it that stroke a chord with me. After that tasting, I became so interested in what sake is and how it’s made that I started researching the subject. My main job is analyst, so I am good in it. I searched the Internet and bought a few books about sake by John Gauntner, Philip Harper and others. And sake started unfolding its story for me taking me on a really exciting journey.
I have already mentioned that I am fascinated by the duality of the sake, its simplicity and complexity at the same time, its own magic and its own philosophy. There is a Japanese concept called shibumi, which refers to a particular aesthetic of simple, subtle, and unobtrusive beauty. And it’s very true about sake.
7:14
Why I like sake: People
So after my discovery, I started to look for opportunities to learn more about sake and started to go to sake tastings and other events, which were on the rise in London. And every time I was meeting very interesting people there. Brewers, who were coming to the UK to present their sake, the people who were selling and promoting sake, sake educators and sake sommeliers. And everyone I have met was passionate about sake, enthusiastic about the job and fun to talk with.
You can judge how dedicated people are by looking at how sake is made. The process still involves a lot of manual labour and it’s very demanding physically. People actually live at the brewery during the brewing season because they don’t have much time to go home every night and come back the next morning. It’s not like a 9 to 5 job. They work probably… I don’t know… very long hours, sometimes 20 hours a day or even more. They share the same room with their fellow sake workers, eat together and work on making the best sake they can.
And people still go through all that hardship and when they talk about the sake they made you can see how proud they are about it and it’s really inspirational. You want not only to try their sake but also help them by spreading the word about what an amazing drink sake is. You become as enthusiastic as they are.
When I was taking my sake specialist course, taught by Satomi from Enshu and Oliver from Tengu Sake, I not only learnt a great deal about sake from them but also took away a bit of their enthusiasm with me. So I think meeting such interesting and passionate people was definitely one of the key reasons I am so emotionally involved with sake now. And enthusiasm is always contagious! Sorry to use this phrase in the time of coronavirus.
9:25
Why I like sake: History behind
But sake is not only just a drink. It’s a part of more than a thousand years of Japanese history and Japanese culture. And I love both history and culture! When I was at school, I was a member of the school’s history club and loved reading historical novels and books. I even wanted to do a history degree at uni. And I think I first heard about sake reading a book about Tokugawa Japan when I was a boy. And I think I mentioned it in the first episode.
9:57
Breweries with history
Many breweries have a very intriguing history behind them. It’s either a story of the foundation or an anecdote about the name or a legend behind a particular sake. The first thing I usually do, when I research for the sake, is to look up its history. A lot of breweries are 200-300 years old having emerged during the Edo period in 1600-1800.
But some are even older. The oldest I know is Sudo Honke, founded guess when? 1141! 1141, almost 900 years ago. And it’s still owned by the original Sudo family. The current president is the 55th generation owner.
When I am reading about the history of a particular old brewery and especially when I am drinking the sake from this brewery, I feel the connection with the people who lived hundreds of years ago because a small bit of their efforts and aspiration has been brought through all these centuries and put into a bottle of the beautiful sake. And I feel very grateful to the person who founded the brewery say 300 years ago and I wonder whether he ever imagined that the business he had started would be bringing people joy of good sake many many years after he’s gone.
Another fascinating topic is how breweries got their name. Sometimes it involves very interesting incidents or legends.
For example, there is a very cool and mysterious story about Daitengu brewery from Fukushima prefecture. Daitengu means Great or Big Tengu. Tengu is a mythical creature with a red face and a very long nose. You have probably seen their pictures before. And if you ever drink Daitengu sake, you will notice a tengu on the bottle’s label.
So the brewery was founded in 1872 and at the beginning the owner was also involved in the warehousing business. But sake sales were growing fast so he decided to use the warehouse for sake brewing and asked the customers to take away their stuff. However, two boxes remained unclaimed. When the brewery workers opened them they were surprised to discover two tengu masks inside. “It’s a gift from the gods”, declared the owner and named the company after them: Great Tengu. Since I’ve read this story I’ve been always wondering what happened to the owner of the tengu masks, why he or she didn’t claim the boxes. It really stimulates your imagination. And there are a lot of similarly cool stories and legends about other breweries.
12:53
Bottles and labels
Another thing connected to history and sake is beautiful bottles. I really love a classic shape of a sake bottle with a long neck and a straight base. It reminds me I don’t know… a droplet like a droplet of sake coming from another droplet. I find it really beautiful. But what is even more beautiful is the labels with exquisite calligraphy, different texture of the paper, ornaments, pictures of animals, plants, mountains and so on.
Some of the bottles look very sophisticated and the others look quite rustic. Some give you an impression of hundreds of years of history and the others look extremely modern. If I go to a sake shop in Kyoto or Tokyo, I can spend hours just looking at the bottles, their labels and shapes. It’s like going to an art gallery. Seriously!
Why I like sake: Culture and art
13:54
Rites and rituals
And it’s not far-fetched. When you read about sake, when you talk to people about sake you start to realise that it has a tremendous cultural significance. It’s not just a drink, it’s a national treasure. Indeed, sake has been brewed in Japan for centuries and is connected to almost all aspects of Japanese life. Take, for example, rites or rituals: weddings, births and funerals, celebrations and starting new ventures, sake plays its part during all of them.
At a wedding ceremony, for example, the bride and groom take three sips of sake from three stacked cups three times, which is called, nan-nan-san-ku-do. Or take a kagami biraki ceremony, when before starting something new like a new business or a new house, a barrel of sake is broken open. This ritual goes back to the 17th century when the fourth Tokugawa shogun was the first to hold this ceremony 300 years ago on the eve of war. And he was successful, proving, it works.
15:03
Sakeware
For the hundreds or even a thousand years of brewing, sake has inspired the creation of many beautiful things like beautiful traditional Japanese sake drinking vessels: ochoko or sakazuki cups, sake flasks called tokkuri, or kiriko sake sets made of cut glass. Before the start of my sake journey, I looked them as at something beautiful but not connected to me. Now they are probably the most beautiful drinkware on Earth for me together with Bohemian crystal or Riedel glasses.
When I am looking at ceramic sake cups with their uneven shapes and various sizes, I imagine how the potter was thinking about who was going to drink from that cup and what kind of sake, and what is the best shape to make the experience really enjoyable. So you can see how sake was and still is inspiring the artistry, which can be admired even you don’t drink sake. But if you do, you can really appreciate the shape and the aesthetic of the sake glass you use.
16:10
Food and culinary
Sake is also an integral part of Japanese cuisine. I think I first tried sake in Japan at a very old inn and I had a distinct feeling of a perfect marriage between the food and the drink. Historically sake was created to complement Japanese food not to overshadow it. It normally takes a back seat and helps the food shine. And this modesty of sake brewers is very close to my heart.
A style of sake historically depended on the local food in the area. Japan is not a very big country by territory. But it has a huge variety of regional food specialities. It looks like every town and every village has some local food. It was funny when I was working at a Japanese company here in London and sometimes I was going on long weekends somewhere in England. And every time I was back my colleagues asked me: “What was food speciality in this area”, assuming that every English town has one. Alas, it’s not the case.
It’s so cool to try local sake (which is called jizake) with local specialities. So rewarding! For example, in Kochi prefecture with its amazing seafood, the sake is usually light and dry to go well with the oiliness of sashimi, while in Hida, where meat is more common, the local sake could be more savoury and have a deeper taste. Unfortunately, jizake becomes less and less common nowadays.
Oh, sake is usually used in Japanese cooking. Basically, there is hardly any Japanese dish made without sake. It makes the meat softer, gets rid of unwanted smells, and gives deeper flavour to the dishes. Interestingly, cooking sake is not taxed as normal sake because the Japanese Government recognises its importance in cooking. However, it requires adding a bit of salt in it before selling which makes the cooking sake undrinkable.
18:19
Social drink
And talking about food, sake is definitely a social drink. Well, you might say that most alcoholic drinks are social. But I still think that sake is special. Sake is almost always drunk with food and eating and drinking in Japan is a very important activity.
People get together to have a nice meal with delicious sake and talk about life and everything. What I particularly like about sake is the way you usually pour it for each other. You would pour for your friends and wait politely when they would pour for you. This is my favourite sake ritual! As John Gauntner mentioned in his Sake Confidential book, “It is a show of everything good from respect to friendship”. And I totally agree. It creates this warm feeling of closeness and friendship and it helps interaction when you don’t know the people very well.
19:41
Sake of the episode
Now it’s time for the sake of the episode. And I would like to talk about Dassai! Dassai is an iconic sake brand, probably one of a few very well-known outside Japan. And it’s brewed by Asahi Shuzo, which is a bit confusing. First, this Asahi Shuzo has nothing to do with Asahi beer, which I think belongs to Mitsubishi. Secondly, there is another iconic brand of sake in Japan, Kubota, which is also brewed by Asahi brewery, but again a different one.
Asahi, in Japanese, means rising sun, a symbol of Japan, so I guess many businesses wanted to associate themselves with this symbol. It’s just like Nippon. Before I got interested in Japan, I didn’t know that Nippon, in Japanese, means Japan or Japanese. Was quite a discovery for me and I suddenly realised why so many Japanese companies have Nippon in their names.
Anyway, the story of Dassai is quite remarkable. Asahi brewery is quite young, founded in 1948 outside the city of Iwakuni in Yamaguchi prefecture. While not as famous as Hyogo, Hiroshima, Niigata and of course Kyoto, Yamaguchi prefecture is home of a number of sake breweries.
For many years, Asahi was making ordinary sake called Asahifuji, loved by locals. But as the sales of sake were generally declining in Japan since the 1970s, the same happened to Asahifuji. When the current president of the brewery, Sakurai Hiroshi became the head of Asahi Shuzo, the company was losing money. So he tried all tricks from the book to revive the brewery’s fortune and eventually launched premium sake, called Dassai in 1990 in Tokyo, where the market for high-grade sake was that time.
Dassai literally means “otter festival”, you know, otters, small animals leaving on river banks. The prefecture has a lot of them. For most otters, fish is the staple of their diet. So they catch fish and lay them on the shore as if they are displaying them at a festival. You know those festivals with various stalls showing off local products etc. So the word Dassai has been used for a long time in the region to describe it. I am not sure why the brewery decided to use it for the name of the sake but I guess they wanted something associated with the prefecture.
Since then, the sales of Dassai have taken off quite significantly. Especially after 2005. The brewery eventually stopped making futsushu, though the locals were not chaffed by that. But what could they do? So now Asahi makes only junmai daiginjo sake, which is still not common as most of the breweries make the full range. Tatenokawa is another brewery focused on Junmai Daiginjo.
My story with Dassai is also quite interesting because this is the first sake brand I learnt. I was in Japan a few years ago and on the last day of my stay, I met my former colleagues, who booked a nice soba restaurant for the evening. At some point one of them asked me whether I would like to have a bit of sake. I said Why not and he ordered what he described as “the most popular sake in Japan”. I really liked it and when the next morning I was going to the airport and messaged him and asked what was the name. It was Dassai. I could not find it at the Duty-Free anyway, it usually sells very quickly, but I remember the name.
There are three main Dassai products, which are simply called Dassai 45, Dassai 39 and Dassai 23 by the polishing ratio. Before the brewery was making Dassai 50 but has recently decided to upgrade it to 45. So Dassai 45 is an entry-level product for Junmai Daiginjo and it’s amazing. I haven’t actually tried 45 but only 50 but they are not too different.
Dassai 50 is a very versatile sake and will go with any dish. It has a very balanced acidity, medium dryness and a nice fruity aroma with melon, ripe peach and a bit of banana. I always recommend Dassai 45 to those who never tried sake before. You can’t go wrong with it.
The next level is Dassai 39, my favourite of the 3. It has a perfect balance of refinement and character, It has a very nice creamy texture, a bit lower acidity than Dassai 45 but is a bit more aromatic. Again, it’s quite versatile but probably requires a bit lighter food like fish, salad or cheese, light pasta.
Dassai 23 is a very cool product. Very refined and very aromatic, with more I would say confectionery aroma and a bit of minerality. The sake is silky and smooth and shows the amazing craftsmanship of the brewery. You probably don’t want to drink it with food but rather on its own to enjoy all the nuances. While I really like it and admire the amazing quality, I still prefer 39 or 45 as they have a bit more character.
Again, it’s a very interesting story about why 23. The brewery president wanted to make the most polished sake and that time, it was 25%. So he told the brewery workers to start polishing and went on a business trip. There somebody mentioned that another brewery was making sake from 24% polished rice. So when he hurried back to the brewery he asked to add another 2% of polishing, which meant 24 more hours of work. So it took seven days and nights working hard or 168 hours to polish the rice.
There is another product, called Dassai Beyond. The brewery doesn’t disclose a polishing ratio but must be 10% or less. It’s fantastic sake, so refined that you feel like you are drinking water but special water like from paradise. It’s smooth, gentle, aromatic and soft. But it’s really special sake. A bottle costs around 400-500 pounds so it’s not very inclusive. It shows the superb mastery of the Asahi brewery but you are not going to drink it too often. It’s definitely way beyond my budget, I was just lucky to have an opportunity to try it once.
If you have never tried sake before, or you have someone whom you would like to introduce into the wonderful world of sake, Dassai is your best bet. It’s amazing sake, Dassai 45 is very affordable, the name is easy to remember and yeah, neither you nor your friends will be disappointed.
27:28
Ending
So that’s it for today. I’ll be back with more episodes. In the meantime, go and have some sake. The fresh sake of this year should be already available! I heard from a few people stories of sake breweries pouring out sake they could not sell because of the pandemic. Such a sad story, because the guys put their hearts and souls into making beautiful sake.
So please support the new season sake. I don’t call for drinking excessively and I guess wine producers are probably in a similar situation. But next time you are thinking, what drink to have, please entertain an idea of having nice sake like Dassai or Dewazakura, Gozenshu, you name it. There are so many great sake around.
Go to sugidama.co.uk/tasting-notes and find something which looks attractive to you. I am going to add a few new sake there. Or look in my posts about 5 best seasonal sake. Please, send me an email or leave a comment about your experience.
Again if you like the episode and want more, hit the SUBSCRIBE button, please, please, please leave a review. Don’t wait, just do it now. I am relying on you to reach more people and tell them how amazing sake is! And of course please share this podcast with your friends, with anyone who might ask you about sake, on your social media (have I mentioned it already?). Great to see that you enjoy my podcast!
Thanks a lot for listening!
Kampai!