Ahhh Sake

Saturday we had our forth in a series of spirits tastings. This time we went east (since we're in California maybe I should say west) and sipped Sake along with 10 delicious tofu inspired dishes topped off by a ponzu flavored tofu cheescake with a cherry glaze from our cherry tree and green tea whipped cream. In total we tasted six sakes, four with dinner and two with dessert.

The dinner sakes were: Kuromatsu-Hakushika from Japan; Sho Chiku Bai from Takara Sake in Berkeley; and two from a brewery in Oregon: Momokawa Pearl a nigori sake (unfiltered and thus cloudy) and Momokawa Diamond. The dessert sakes were: Creme de Sake also a nigori and also from Takara Sake in Berkeley and a sparkling sake named Hou Hou Shu from Japan.

For a nigori, the Momokawa was suprisingly not sweet and had a nice finish. Both the Diamond and the Sho Chiku Bai were very clean and crisp. The Kuromatsu which is a junmai daiginjo (see below) had a deeper and more complex flavor. In terms of the dessert sakes, the sparkling was quite good but not something I'd drink often and the Creme de Sake had the typical sweetness that is common to most nigori sakes.

For regular drinking I'd with for the Momokawa Diamond. For special occasions, I'd pick up a bottle of the Kuromatsu.

A little history about sake from Wikipedia...

The origins of sake are unclear. The first alcoholic drink in Japan may have been kuchikami no sake ("mouth-chewed sake"), which is made by chewing nuts or grains and spitting them into a pot. The enzymes from the saliva allow the starches to convert to sugar and then ferment.

By the Asuka period (538-710), sake made from rice, water, and kōji mold was the dominant alcohol. In the Heian period (794-1185), sake began to be used for religious ceremony and people seldom drank it. Sake production was a government monopoly for a long time, but in the 10th century, temples and shrines began to brew sake, and they became the main centers of production for the next 500 years.

During the Meiji Restoration, anybody with the money and know how was permitted to construct and operate their own sake breweries. In 1898 revenue from sake taxes brought in about 46% of the government's tax income. During the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), the government banned the home brewing of sake in order to increase tax revenue. This was the end of home-brewed sake, and the law remains in effect today even though sake sales now make up only 2% of government income.

There are two basic types of sake: futsū-shu and tokutei meishō-shu. Futsū-shu, "ordinary sake," is the equivalent of table wine and accounts for the majority of sake produced. Tokutei meishō-shu, "special designation sake," refers to premium sakes distinguished by the degree to which the rice is polished and the added percentage of brewer's alcohol or the absence of such additives. The three types of special designation sake are:

• Honjōzō-shu, in which a slight amount of brewer's alcohol is added to the sake before pressing, in order to extract extra flavors and aromas from the mash. Sake with this designation must be made with no more than 116 liters of pure alcohol added for every 1,000 kilograms of rice.
• Junmai-shu, "pure rice sake," made from only rice, water and kōji, with no brewer's alcohol or other additives.
• Ginjō-shu, made from rice polished to 60% or less of its original weight. Sake made from rice polished to 50% or lower is called daiginjō-shu.