Sake Seminar

Wednesday, September26, 2007

Wine Country, www.thewinecountry.com, had another "Sake Seminar". I so enjoyed the one last year, I had to attend this one.

Sake is made with four simple ingredients. Rice, water, mold & yeast. It is a very labor intensive product to make. I will not go into the details but I was very surprised at how long it takes to mill the rice and make sake.

Good Sake is always served cold. The 3 levels of sake are, Junmai, Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daigingo. Only 0.5% of all Sake production in Japan reaches the Daiginjo level, hence the price reflects it.

Tonight we tasted 6 Sakes . These Sakes had alcohol levels of 14.9% to 16%

First up was "Nabu Bijin "Southern Beauty" served with Oysters on the half shell with shallot vinegar.

Next was Fukucho "Moon on the Water" - made by a female sake brewer and Chiyonosono "Scared Power". These were served with steamed clams in white wine, shallots & parsley and asparagus with aoli.

The next two were Sato no Homare "Pride of the Village" made by a 6oo year old brewery, 55 generations of the same family and Ginjo Shizuku "Divine Droplets" . These were served with a Pork tenderloin with a peach glaze.

Last up was Tozai "Voices in the Mist". This was an unfiltered Sake. Served with a spicy salmon tartare and rice.

There is a website that has a lot of information of sake, http://www.esake.com/,