GATEWAY TO SAKE | SAKE PRESERVED

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Nicholas Livingston

Whether dipping your toe or ready for the deep end, our sake portfolio is open to you. With over 60 bottlings from 16 Kura representing 10 prefectures across Japan, and with 11 varieties brewed in Oregon, THE WINE COMPANY sake portfolio combines the best of World Sake Imports and SAKÉ ONE with a spectrum of styles from Nigori to Junmai Daiginjo, Nama to Genshu, Organic to Vegan in 7 formats – 6 in glass, 1 in can!

What makes some sake better than others? Certainly the attention to detail at the brewery, the type of water they have, the variety of rice, and the mastery of timing. One factor however that remains outside of the brewer’s control is preserving the sake once it is released to the wider world. Between our chosen selections and our efforts to this end, our sake stand head and shoulders above the rest.

All sake at THE WINE COMPANY are shipped under refrigeration from their breweries in Japan or Oregon to Minnesota. As soon as it lands it goes into our large walk-in cooler entirely devoted to sake. Preservation is paramount which is why we exhort everyone we know to do the same so together we can serve all sake as the master sake brewer intended. Another world beckons.

Here are TECH SHEETS on some sake we are proud to represent:

Akitabare | Akita Prefecture
Akitabare “Koshiki Junzukuri” Northern Skies
Akitabare “Shunsetsu” Spring Snow

Dewazakura | Yamagata Prefecture
Dewazakura “Izumi Judan” Tenth Degree
Dewazakura “Oka” Cherry Bouquet
Dewazakura “Dewasasan” Green Ridge
Dewazakura “Tobiroku” Festival of Stars

Hakutsuru | Hyogo Prefecture
Hakutsuru Excellent Junmai Sake
Hakutsuru Junmai Daiginjo Sho-Une
Hakutsuru Junmai Draft Sake
Hakutsuru Organic Sake
Hakutsuru Sayuri Nigori Sake
Hakutsuru Superior Junmai Ginjo
Hakusturu Umeshu Plum Wine

Hoyo | Miyagi Prefecture
Hoyo “Kura no Hana” Fair Maiden

Kamoizumi | Hiroshima Prefecture
Kamoizumi “KomeKome” Happy Bride
Kamoizumi “Junmai Daiginjo” Autumn Elixir
Kamoizumi “Nigori Ginjo” Summer Snow

Kasumi Tsuru | Hyogo Prefecture
Kasumi Tsuru Kimoto Extra Dry

KIBO | Iwate Prefecture
KIBO Junmai Sake -in a can!

Masumi | Nagano Prefecture
Masumi “Okuden Kantsukuri” Mirror of Truth

Miyasaka | Nagano Prefecture
Miyasaka “Yawaraka Junmai” Sake Matinee

Murai Family | Aomori Prefecture
Murai Family Daiginjo Sake
Murai Family Nigori Genshu
Murai Family Sugidama Sake
Murai Family Tokubetsu Honjozo

Sake Moto | Hyogo Prefecture
SakeMoto Junmai

Tedorigawa Yoshimi | Ishikawa Prefecture
Tedorigawa “Iki na Onna” Lady Luck
Tedorigawa “Yamahai Daiginjo” Chrysanthemum Meadow

G | Oregon, USA
G Fifty Junmai Ginjo Genshu
G Joy Junmai Ginjo Genshu

Momokawa | Oregon, USA
Momokawa Diamond Medium Dry
Momokawa Pearl Creamy Nigori
Momokawa Organic Nigori
Momokawa Organic Junmai

Grateful for every sake from these renown sake breweries,
we hope you enjoy them as much as we do.

So…what is sake?

Posted on March 9, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

A lot of folks think that sake is rice wine. In fact, it’s not wine at all. If anything, it’s more closely related to beer, as it is actually brewed.

What is it made from exactly? Water, rice, yeast and koji…and sometimes alcohol…happily explained below.

RICES
There are 100 plus strains of sake rice, with maybe 25 of those in active use today. Those below are some of the most favored strains for top quality sake. Though each has distinctive characteristics, these are not as obvious and defining in sake as grape varieties are in wine. In fact, each type of rice can produce a myriad of different styles, aromas, and flavors. Additionally, many producers looking for further complexity and balance will use more than one type in a single sake.

A large majority of sake brewers consider Yamada Nishiki to be the best possible rice for brewing daiginjo, the highest grade of premium sake. It produces delicate, fragrant, feminine sake. Its ability to absorb water and dissolve quickly into the sake fermenting mash makes it a favorite amongst brewers. Hyogo is the most prolific region for Yamada Nishiki. A hybrid of yamadabo and wataribune, themselves virtually unused for decades, Yamada Nishiki is definitely a noble offspring of obscurity; now the most expensive of sake rices. 33.3% of the 2015 harvest.

Gohyakumangoku is the second most popular sake rice in Japan. All sake rice is planted later than table rice yet Gohyakumangoku can be harvested as early as mid-August, while Yamada Nishiki is typically not harvested until October. This rice is most commonly found growing along the northwestern coast of Japan, although the region of Niigata is often credited with putting this rice on the sake map. This rice produces a classic style of sake, clean, light, and refreshing. 24.7% of the 2015 harvest.

Miyama Nishiki is widely used in northern Japan and is known for producing rich, full bodied sakes. Known for its prolific growth and resistance to cold weather, this rice is often used to create hybrid rice strains, 60 offspring and counting. 8.7% of the 2015 harvest.

Omachi is known for rich, earthy flavors that are some of the easiest to identify when tasting sake. Generally less fragrant, more defined by flavor elements, more earthiness. The individual flavor components compete against each other in a compellingly faceted way, as opposed to blending harmoniously, as they might with Yamada Nishiki. Originating in Okayama, Omachi may be the last pure strain of sake rice still in use in Japan. Growing quickly in popularity, demand outstripped the harvest in 2015.

Koshi Tanrei is a relatively recent hybrid used almost exclusively in Niigata Prefecture. Koshi Tanrei marries the parental qualities of Gohyakumangoku’s clean and dry style with Yamada Nishiki’s fragrant, floral characteristics and can be polished very far down. Brewers in Niigata have been working to use only local ingredients in their sakes, but because Yamada Nishiki is predominantly grown outside of Niigata, it was difficult until the development of Koshi Tanrei for these brewers to make daiginjo grade sakes using exclusively local rice. Bravo for them!

(For further reading on rice and more, you will find no better expert than John Gauntner. Explore his wealth of knowledge at sake-world.com.)

KOJI
Aspergillus oryzae, also known as koji-kin, is a filamentous fungus, a mold. The koji-kin fungus has been called Japan’s “national microorganism” because of its importance not only for making sake, but also for making other traditional foods, such as miso and soy sauce. I have Googled it; we do not have a “national microorganism”. We should urge our Administration to get on this before all the good ones are taken.

Koji is the steamed rice that has had the koji-kin mold spores cultivated onto it. Koji-kin creates several enzymes as it propagates in the Koji. There are many enzymes produced in this process. Some act to create fermentable sugar, others create sugars that will not ferment but instead affect texture and flavor in sake.

The koji-making process takes 40-45 hours in a room where temperature and humidity are strictly controlled. During this entire time the koji is frequently mixed; by hand for high quality sake. Rice type, pH and mineral content of the water, and a myriad of other details also influence the way koji is made. Koji is used at least four times throughout the process, each time it is made fresh and used immediately.

Sake through the ages

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

H I S T O R Y O F S A K E
Japan’s earliest written history, the Kojiki, establishes sake’s origin back two millennia to the Age of the Gods, the Kamiyo. The kami, the deities of the Shinto faith, gathered to eat, drink, and be merry at what is now revered as the sakamizuki -a gathering after which sake was named. This was the occasion sake was first brewed and the gods loved it so much they carried on drinking it for 180 days straight.

This spirit carries on to a degree that every corner of Japan now hosts kura breweries which craft sake consumed across Japan and around the world. Sake is a custom of revelry that lives on around the tables in every lzakaya tavern to the finest restaurants of Gion. From the beginning, sake has played a prominent role in society: from consecrating wedding vows, homes, and temples to purifying celebrants at festivals.

Walking past any of Japan’s 2,970 lnari shrines one cannot help but notice the walled stacks of sake barrels offered to lnari, Shinto’s patron spirit of rice. Inari Ōkami (稲荷大神, also Oinari) is also the patron spirit of foxes, fertility, tea, of farming and business, of industry, wealth and success. The most popular kami in all of Shinto, lnari is the patron of much of what the Japanese hold dearest.

The sake we revere today, this Gift of the Gods made from rice, water, and koji mold, first took shape during the Nara period of the 8th century. By the following Heian period, sake played a major part of daily life at every level of society from drinking games to court festivals -even religious sacraments. Portuguese and Dutch traders of the 16^th century were the first western palates to taste this national drink but it wasn’t until the late 19th century that sake began arriving in the United States in any meaningful way.

During the 20th century technology and cleanliness gave rise to leaps in quality. Although transportation opened new markets, the kura today number fewer than 2,000 -a far cry from the 30,000 during the Meiji Restoration at the turn of the last century. 100 years later sake charms every stripe for its breadth of character, pristine quality, and as a beverage unto itself. The United States has never been savvier about food and drink and proves evermore curious to explore sake -with imports growing from $21 million to almost $34 million in the last decade -credited in large part to wine professionals taking the joys of sake seriously.

Sake the Epiphany

Posted on March 6, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

We find many of our dearest discoveries over drinks at dinner. Sake is no exception. Once we evolved beyond the warmed sake of yore to discover the varied styles beyond this inert custom, a light bulb flickered and down the rabbit hole we went matching mineral junmai to favorite oysters, sipping delicate daiginjo with an array of subtly sweet and fragrant foods, while savoring those with less of their rice milled away with fuller flavors like tempura -even well marbled beef.

Food is so often the low door in the wall. Our vinous fascination takes us from there. Wine and sake have much in common after all but we love sake all the more for being distinct in its own right -not least that it has less acidity and is free of tannins setting new opportunities at the table. For a grain grown in water, its goût de terroir is less an expression of climate, slope, weather, or a given variety of rice and more about the water itself and regional brewing traditions. A new terrain to be sure but how quickly we learn the cognates for the gin drinker’s aperitif, find a sake for that itch for a rich Meursault -even scintillating alternatives to Champagne. No wonder sake has earned a growing awareness and rising popularity. Sake is a world unto itself inspiring singular pleasures unique to this Gift of the Gods.

The Wine Company welcomes SakéOne!

Posted on February 23, 2017 by Nicholas Livingston

Our love and portfolio of premium sake stretches back over 20 years at The Wine Company. Together with keen eyed retailers and restaurateurs, our enthusiasm helped build Minnesota into a land of sake connoisseurs.

Importing delectable sake is essential to this but we owe much of this success to working with chef driven restaurants who embrace its endless food pairing opportunities. Fortunate for everyone, sake is no longer the reserve of sushi and kaiseki restaurants alone. Sommeliers today recognize the breadth of experience offered by sake and sake alone. For this the most dynamic drinks menu today provides guests everything from Honjozo to Junmai Daiginjo –often as tasting flights for people to play and explore food pairings themselves. Is there any better way to note distinctions and find one’s favorites than with glass in hand?

Thanks to tastings and classes, Minnesota has enjoyed a groundswell in sake interest across the retail market as well. Bottle shops large and small enjoy a devoted sake custom. Some drive the business with their own newfound passion while others are amazed at how much sake they sell simply by presenting a varied assortment in their chilled section. There is a thirst and if it is met with premium sake it is a bug people catch for good.

Joining forces with SakéOne, The Wine Company is thrilled to widen our stable of premium sake. Those imported from Japan include our long standing partner Hakutsuru and add the sake from the Murai Family, Kibo, Kasumi Tsuru, Yoshi no Gawa, Sakémoto, and Tombo –an illustrious pantheon of Kura –each a boon in its own right. Every bit as thrilling are SakéOne’s very own craft sake brewed in Forest Grove, Oregon since 1997. Since then Momokawa, Moonstone, and G Saké have won more awards than any other sake company in America.

Here’s to raising our glasses high to domestic sake, the best kura of Japan, this newly forged friendship with SakéOne, and to building on Minnesota’s growing enthusiasm –Kanpai!