In search of sake

It was in Abaracho, a small sake and wine shop on the main shopping street a few blocks from the Fushimi-Momoyama station, that I had my sake epiphany–a zen moment when I began to understand the balance of rice and water that separates the best sake from the rest.

The proprietor, Yuichiro Okuda, had poured a tasting set of a ginjo, junmai and daiginjo sakes from local brewers into blue and white "snake eye" cups.

The ginjo Fuhsimi Minato and the junmai Shyotaku were both very good. The Fushimi Minato had a dry, peppery flavor and the Shyotaku had a creamy and fruity taste, with a sweet finish.

But the daiginjo, Ichigin, was perfection–the ideal balance of rice and water, sweet and dry. The aroma was like a spring day, a light floral bouquet reminiscent of cherry blossoms. The beginning was sweet, but with a slight tartness like apples. The middle became more complex and balanced the tastes of the water, alcohol and rice. The finish lingered for a long time, extending the flavor until it faded like the maple leaves outside on a fall day.

But I’m just learning about sake.

I learned to drink wine when I was in my 20s in San Francisco. Friends would come to visit and I’d take them to the wine country. We’d go up there, not because we were connoisseurs, but because it was a chance to drink free wine. But a funny thing happened: The more wines we tasted, the more we learned.

I started being able to taste the difference between a merlot and a pinot noir. I chatted with the wine guy using phrases like "buttery" and "oaky" and "fruity." And it wasn’t just because if you sounded knowledgeable, they’ll reach under the counter to get the better stuff.

That’s why, on a recent business trip, I spent some time in the Kansai region to visit Fushimi, near Kyoto, and Nada, near Kobe, two of the most important sake brewing regions in Japan.

You can pick up maps of the sake breweries or kura at the tourism office at the main train stations. But as of last fall, only the Nada had a map in English.

Unlike the pastoral scenes in Napa and Sonoma, the kura in Fushimi and Nada are in industrial/warehouse areas. At many breweries, tours are available. But most of the tours are given in Japanese.

In Fushimi, an older, more traditional neighborhood, it’s hard to find English speakers or even street signs in English. But after a few "doko?" (where) questions and hand signals, I managed to find my way around.

The Gekkikan Okura Sake Museum is probably the biggest and best known brewery in Fushimi. Tour buses pack the parking lot, along with tour guides with flags leading large groups through the museum.

Even if the tour is in Japanese, there’s a museum, with English signs, that explain the history of sake-making in the area and how sake is made. And you don’t really have to know Japanese to find the free tasting room.

If you want to spend a little money, around the corner from the museum is a gift shop and sake room, where you can purchase additional tasting sets of sake along with appetisers and gifts.

Also nearby is the Kizakura Kappa Country brewery and museum, which also has English language displays on sake brewing and the history of Fushimi.

A short train ride away is the Nada district of Kobe. According the the tourist literature, it is Japan’s most important and prolific sake brewing region. More sake is brewed here than in any other region.

At the tourist information office in the main Kobe train station, you can pick up an English language map of Nada that features directions to nine breweries within walking distance of each other. Some of them are major brewers like Hakutsuru and Kikumasamune, which are widely distributed in Japan and the U.S.

The larger brewers have museums with English signs and offer scheduled tours. Other breweries are smaller, family-run operations. All offer free tastings. But, if you pay a little bit extra, some have tasting rooms where you can buy tastings of the better stuff.

Again, there wasn’t much English spoken. But I found people who spoke English who were willing to translate.

Like Napa, the brewers also have harvest festivals and release parties. When I visited, the Kobe Shu-shin-kan brewery was celebrating a new sake just bottled earlier that day and the tenth anniversary of the rebuilding of brewery after the Kobe earthquake.

Booths were set up in the courtyard serving oden, mochi, red rice, grilled octopus, and, of course, sake.

The tour of the brewery was in Japanese, but another tourist, Phyllis Ikeda, who lives in Japan, translated for us.

The guide held up a sample of "Yamada Nishiki" rice, known as the best rice for sake. He pointed out the large size of the grain, which leaves more starch after it is ground and polished to the essence of the kernel.

The water, he said, comes from the Rokko Mountains above Kobe. Fewer people, the guide explained, are drinking sake in Japan. They’re losing out to beer. But overseas, in America and other countries, sake’s popularity is growing.

Afterwards, we ended up in the tasting room, where we sampled the newly bottled sake, a junmai with sweet and grassy overtones.

As I sipped my drink, my thoughts wandered to mountain streams and rice drying in fields. In the courtyard outside, the autumn sun began to cast long shadows, signaling the end of the day.

I paid for another tasting set, which came with tofu to clear the palete. I took notes, but the labels on many of the sakes I tasted were in kanji and only available in Japan.

Learning about sake is going to be a daunting task, I thought. But I resolved to keep going and headed for the train station in search of an izakaya to continue my quest.

How Sake Is Made

Sake is basically a combination of rice, water and koji (yeast). The first phase of the process is to mill or polish the rice. In the best sakes anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent of the grain is polished away, leaving only the essence of the rice starch.

Next the rice is washed and then soaked in water. The rice absorbs the optimal amount of water, then is steamed and the koji mold is added. This is a critical process and varies by sake maker.

A yeast starter is added. More rice, koji and water are added over a period of about four days, then the resulting mash is fermented for 18 to 32 days. When the sake is ready, the mash is pressed and the clear sake remains. The sake is then filtered, pasturized, and aged.

It’s sometimes blended before bottling and shipping.

Main Types Of Premium Sake

Daiginjo or Junmai Daiginjo – Sake made from rice where at least 50 percent or more of the kernel is milled away.

Ginjo or Junmai Ginjo – Sake made from rice where at least 40 percent of the kernal is milled away.

Junmai or "Pure rice sake" – sake made with only rice, water and yeast, without additives. The rice is polished to where at least 30 percent of the kernel removed.

Honjozo – Sake with a small amount of brewers alcohol added and with at least 30 percent of the rice kernal removed.

Nigori zake – Sake that has not been fully pressed. It appears cloudy or milky.