Akashi Tai Tokubetsu Honjozo Sake, 72 cl

Product Information

Akashi-Tai Honjozo Sake, is a medium-bodied sake with hints of citrus and straw, this is the drink the brew masters reach for at the end of a working day Mr Yonezawa explains the brewery’s philosophy this way: “My mission is to make sake that can reveal the character of Hyogo’s water, rice and yeasts, among the finest in Japan, and really let them shine.”

Due to the Japanese wanting to become more western, wanting to drink beers and whiskey and cognacs, the poor little sake brewers have really had a hard time," says Cheong-Thong. The thinning out has, however, had the unexpected benefit of improving production standards, and slowly sake's popularity is rebounding as more premium examples appear, in which history meets modern brewing techniques.We enlisted a panel of accredited experts and sake enthusiasts to put 12 varieties and limited releases to the test. They were looking for those that offered well-balanced acidity, complex flavour profiles and a moreish mouthfeel. Polishing is perhaps the key step in defining what kind of sake gets made. It involves stripping away each rice grain's outer husk to reduce down the amount of protein and fat available for fermentation and thus shorten the brewing process. year old Hakutsuru is one of the largest if not the largest sake brewery in Japan. It’s located in Nada area famous for its excellent water and produces a wide range of sake, umeshu and other drinks. It’s brewed at the famous Hayashi Honten, one of a few Japanese breweries run by a woman, in Gifu prefecture. Jidai as well as the previous Tedorigawa Junmai are made using a more traditional yamahai method, which results in a richer and deeper taste and higher acidity. However, Judai is still ginjo sake with a fruity aroma full of apricot, pear, baked apple and a bit of herbal notes.

We at Akashi Sake Brewery pride ourselves on maintaining a traditional handcrafted approach to creating the finest Japanese sake.So, let's settle an age-old debate – should you drink sake warm or chilled? Well, it depends. "All sake used to be consumed warm or at room temperature," says Sebastian Lemoine, a Tokyo-based sake expert and teacher at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school. "However, in the post-war period, consumers started to associate warm sake with the drinking experience of cheap, soon industrial, sake, which was required to feed a booming market." However, when you start to warm it up, the sake opens up and the acidity becomes milder but doesn’t disappear completely. Actually, it was one of the main things I liked about Akashi-Tai Tokubetsu JUnami: its ability to hold acidity even at a high temperature. The warmer sake gets, the more sweetness comes out and the more mouthful it becomes. I liked it best at 50C as Miho san recommended. The company incorporated in 1918, after which it made the most of a geographic location ideal for making fine sake. In brewing its select sakes, Akashi Sake Brewery uses only the choicest ingredients, often produced locally. Really, it's the wrong name: the Japanese character for 'sake' just means 'alcohol', "but at some point it got bastardised," says Cheong-Tong. "It should really be called 'nihonshu': 'nihon' meaning Japan, 'shu' is the alcohol of Japan."

Akashi aren’t traditional or artisan for its own sake, - as in sake, not sake - oh for goodness sake! I mean - never mind... Futsu-shu, which is barely polished, is best thought of as table sake. It accounts for the bulk of sake sold in Japan, and though you'll find some paint stripper, there are many excellent everyday drinkers if you look hard enough.A step up lies junmai sake, which is polished to at least 70% (ie 30% of the rice has been stripped away). These tend to have more umami, savoury flavour profiles. Rather confusingly, 'junmai' also refers to unadulterated sake; non-junmai sakes have distilled alcohol added, to add new notes and smooth out flavours. Honjozo is non-junmai sake polished to at least 70%, and often is well balanced and a good companion for food. Since then, Akashi have taken pride in brewing sakes with the choicest ingredients, that are more often than not produced locally. The brewery’s proximity to the coast and their insistence of tanks with Japanese cedar wood lids leads to sea air impacting the flavour of Akashi-Tai sakes with a slightly salty and particular character. The key ingredient, however, is the yamada-nishiki variety of rice. Known as a superior strain, it’s native to the region just north of Akashi, and considered for sake production above all else because its starch molecules are loosely grouped. This allows koji mold spores to easily enter the structure, and produce superior koji and malted rice. Akashi-Tai Junmai Ginjo Sparkling Sake is made at the Akashi Sake Brewery. It is made in the same way as Champagne and other traditional method sparkling wines starting with a Ginjo Sake then undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The brewery was founded by the Yonezawa family in 1886 in the town of Akashi, one of the major fishing town in the west of Japan. It is an excellent location for a sake brewery with the surrounding fertile soils which are perfect for growing rice and plenty of clean spring water supplies which need for sake production. Akashi Tai is a small artisanal brewery, known as a ‘kura’, who would have previously mainly supplied the local population. However, since the new president Kimio Yonezawa, took over there have been some major developments. The brewery has expanded and modernized its sake-brewing activities, and now produces and sells a wide variety of hand-crafted sakes. As a rule, the more polished the rice, the more delicate the sake, with floral and fruit notes dominating. This tends to be the more refined, high-end stuff, whereas less polishing results in a deeper – some say rougher – style of sake, with bold umami flavours and a certain oiliness on the palette. Again, I tried the sake at various temperatures and room to warm were the best in my opinion. Jidai has a deep and rich taste and high acidity, especially when you drink it chilled or at room temperature. However, the higher you heat it up, the more mellow it becomes.

Heating enhances the impact of naturally occurring glutamic and saccinic acids, imbuing the sake with a pleasant mellowness. Warm sake aids in digestion and is mild on the body. Each was blind tasted neat to avoid brand bias, then diluted with water to mellow the alcohol and appreciate the more nuanced aromatics at play. I tried it chilled first and the low temperature does not do justice to Kanpai Tsuki. The fun starts at room temperature as the sake opens up. So you can smell sweet apple and pear with honey notes and some herbs and a bit of chestnut. It’s a full-bodied sake, slightly fizzy with a creamy texture notable acidity and spiciness from the higher alcohol content. It has a bitter but pleasant finish.For example, the company uses the yamada-nishiki variety of rice — a superior strain — grown in the region just north of Akashi.