Winter is HERE!!!

Well folks it's official: Winter is here.
How do I know?
Well it's not the cold weather, or the snow, or even the Christmas decorations that are already going up in department stores.
My sign came through the store doors in two sizes, 1.8L and 720ml!

That's right I'm talking about the Winter brew, "Shiboritatte (fresh pressed) Sake"!!!
Riding in on the snow here in Hokkaido, we received our first Shiboritatte of the year.
I present to you:

Shimeharitsuru / 〆張鶴

Shiboritatte Nama Genshu / しぼりたって生原酒

Alcohol: 20% / Polish: 60%

SMV: +4

Miyao Shuzo / Niigata Prefecture

Tasting notes:
On the nose: When I first opened the bottle and poured this sake, the nose was huge, with tons of rice, and very sharp. As I let it sit in the glass a little the nose opened up and became more complex, with rich fruit aromas and good depth. Overall very fresh with hints of yeast. The high alcohol came through on the nose a little when chilled, but mellowed as the temperature rose sitting in the glass.

On the palate: Very clean; lots of full bodied fruit and rice flavors. Slight fruity sweetness was balanced beautifully against a dry body with crisp acidity, and a bite from the alcohol on the finish. The finish was crisp and clean. As the sake sat in the glass and warmed a little the acidity mellowed out and the alcohol became almost invisible.

Other notes: 

• This is a Genshu sake (Undiluted sake), so be careful of the high alcohol content. 
• This is a nama (unpasteurized or raw) sake so keep this one in the fridge. 
• Being Shimeharitsuru this is a Niigata prefecture sake, although, in my opinion, this sake does not fall into the traditional Niigata style (light and dry), as it has a full body and a good amount of flavor. 
• Despite the polish rate of 60%, Shimeharitsuru Shiboritatte is in fact a Futsu-shu. This is due in part to the kind of rice they are using and the amount of alchohol that was added to the Moromi (main mash/fermentation). Although it is classified as Futsu-shu there is nothing Futsu about this sake. 
• This is only the first Shiboritatte sake to come in, so look forward to plenty more to come, as well as a turn over to this year’s sakes. 

On a final note, I will be heading off to brew sake with Daishinshu for a week starting this Monday the 16th through the 23rd. Both my camera and my computer will be in tow, so look forward to a week of behind the scenes sake making.

I will be posting tasting notes on more shiboritatte and new sakes as they come out, including the ones that I help make!!

See you all next week!

Meishu no Yutaka Staff
Carlin

A little bit of Born Special!

This is the first post I have done on a Born Sake, but the lack of posts does not translate into a lack of love for the brew. About a week or so ago, we received a shipment of Born's 180ml Nama-Genshu. This isn't something we get all the time, although we carry the 720ml and 1800ml, so I was a bit excited. In all of my excitement, I ran over and grabbed a bottle for myself, and drank it that night. In one word: Delicious!

Born / 梵

Naka-dori Junmai Daiginjo Muroka Nama Genshu

中取り純米大吟醸無濾過生原酒

Alcohol: 17~18% / Polish: 50%

SMV: +4

Brewery: Katou Kichibee Shouten / Fukui Prefecture

Tasting notes:

On the nose: Sweet, very fruity, HUGE NOSE, with lots of melon and Koji rice.

On the palate: Full bodied, lots of rice and Koji rice up front, with hints of melon. Good subtle finish, with a slight bite from the high alcohol content.

Other notes:

• Katou Kichibee Shouten has been around for a long time, and thus has established itself as one of the most famous breweries in Japan. They also make really good sake.
• Born's president, Mr. Katou himself, is the only person I have ever seen who looks exactly like his cartoon caricature.
• (Image taken From Born's Website born.co.jp)
• This sake comes in three sizes: 180ml, 720ml, and 1800ml.
• This is a genshu, so be careful of the high alcohol content.
• This is a Nama Sake (unpasteurized sake) so keep it in the fridge.
• Born is really famous, although due to it's fame, I think it doesn't really gets all the respect it deserves. Under the Born label you will find just about any class of sake you want, most very good warmed or chilled.

I apologize for the delay in postings. The store's news paper / flier will be released in the middle of this month, so we were going like crazy to get it done (finally finished it today! (^_^)V) You can find it on our website Here around the 15th.

On another note, I will be heading over to the United States (San Francisco bay area) from the 9th to the 21st of July!

We (myself and Staff Rie) will be stopping in to visit our friends over at True Sake as well as Yoshi's in San Francisco, not to mention the obligatory Napa wine tasting!

I will continue to update this blog while I am in the States.

Drop me an email @ contact.yutaka@gmail.com if you are in the area and want to talk SAKE!

That's it for this time!

'Till next...

Cheers!

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

Yamahoushi Daiginjo Nama Genshu

This time we are going with a little bit of light and dry with a bang.

Yamahoushi / 山法師

Daiginjo Nama Genshu / 大吟醸生原酒

Alcohol: 18~19% / Polish: 50%

SMV: +4

Brewery: Rokkasen / Yamagata Prefecture

Tasting notes:

On the nose:  Very clean and fresh. Sweet, slightly fruity notes, with hints of rice and yeast.

On the Palate:  Dry with a strong bite off the bat, followed by underlying sweet and fruity characters that give it a nice rounded flavor.  Light to medium bodied.

Other notes:

• This is a genshu so be careful of the high alcohol content.
• A little light bodied for your average genshu, but still enough body and spice to keep you satisfied.
• Coming from Yamagata Prefecture, it has a lot of character. Very fun to drink.
• Yamahoushi has a full line up of sake, from Junmai and Honjozo, to Junmai Daiginjo.  Under a different label, but same brewery, there is also an Umeshu (plum wine) available. Look forward to more Yamahoushi in future posts!

Cheers,

Meishu no Yutaka staff

Carlin

This years Shizukudori, and the Brewery that makes it!

In this installment, I want to highlight one of Hokkaido's premier breweries.
Hokkaido doesn't have a strong reputation for good sake,
however there are breweries making some pretty good stuff.

Today's introduction is a private label sake that Meishu no Yutaka and about 10 other sake stores have put out called: Hokutozuisou Shizukudori.
It is only available in and around Sapporo in a select few shops, so you will have to come up here to get it.

Hokutozuisou Shizukudori / 北斗随想しずくどり
Junmai Ginjo Nama Genshu / 純米吟醸 生原酒
Polish rate: 45% / Alcohol: 16~17%
SMV: +5
Brewery: Kobayashi Shuzo / Hokkaido

Tasting notes:
On the nose: Light, slightly fruity, with hints of rice. The alcohol comes through on the nose, but doesn't over power it. The nose is a little light for the average Ginjo class sake but very clean.

On the palate: Smooth with sweetness from the rice coming up first, followed by the Genshu spiciness, and finally the bite from the high alcohol content. Medium bodied, a little light bodied for a Genshu, but won't let you down.

Other notes:

• Shizukudori is classified as a Ginjo, however it is more than qualified to be a Daiginjo. This is by choice of the sake stores (actually by the president of our store).
  

• This is a Genshu so once again I will remind you to be careful of the high alcohol content.

• Because this is a private label sake, we the Sake stores have the privilege of having a hand in the production process. We tell the brewery what kind of sake we want them to make, and they brew it. We do how ever Help in the bottling phase each year. Usually we help in the pasteurization phase, although this year we helped by hand bottling the entire batch (well over hundred cases). I was lucky to participate this year, and it really gives me a new appreciation for all of the work that goes into a single bottle of sake.

Kobayashi Brewery:

We were lucky enough to get a full tour of the brewing facilities after helping to label the new batch of Shizukudori. Kobayashi shuzo has one of the longest histories for breweries in Hokkaido, with over 130 years under it's belt. It is run within a series of old brick buildings, which I forgot to take any pictures of (I apologize), which are truly a sight to see. The facilities include the brewing room, several warehouses, an office, a Soba restaurant, and a museum / sake store.

First things first, bottling. Unfortunately most of the pictures I have of this have too many people in them to post to the web, however I did manage to get a couple I could use.

Above are (top) the advanced piece of technology that we used to put the labels on straight, and (bottom) a palate of finished cases going off to the warehouse.

Next was a tour of the brewing facilities starting from the unbottled sake storage area, and the pasteurizing area.

Above: (top) brewery staff regulates the temperature of the Pasteurization tank, (bottom) Huge 1,000+ liter storage tanks full of sake awaiting bottling.

The next stop was the Koji cultivation area (I love the smell of fresh Koji). We were not able to go inside the cultivation area, because of potential contamination, but i did snap a picture of the Koji cooling area.

It was quite an interesting setup, as the cooling room was just a tarped in area at the doorway to the hot room.

Next is one of my favorite areas, The brewing room!

(top) The brewing tanks as seen from the upper platform, used when brewing and caring for the sake. (bottom) A look into one of the tanks, this one has been brewing for a while and has settled a bit.

Kobayashi Shuzo uses closed tanks instead of the open topped tanks you see most used these days. There are no real changes made to the sake it's self, however open tanks are easier to clean, where as closed tanks keep things from falling into the tank better and are safer.

Next we took a look at a couple of Shubo tanks (yeast starter mash, written as 酒母, literally translated it means "sake mother").

(top) this batch had just been started the day before, but was already starting to go at it. It was really warm, and already starting to put out some CO2 gas. (bottom) This batch was about 4 days old by the time we saw it and it had a nice foam on the top with enough CO2 gas build up you couldn't stick your face into it. The temperature had dropped by this time, and It was really starting to smell like sake.

The final stop on the tour was the pressing room. The main pressing is done by a series of large accordion presses, but they also have about 10 Fune presses as well (see picture), that unfortunately they are not using at present.

(top) This is your standard accordion press used in just about every brewery in Japan. It consists of a series of fabric balloons into which they pump the unfiltered sake. They then slowly apply pressure to the balloons, lightly squeezing the liquid sake out, leaving behind the Kasu (leavings). This process takes a great deal of time as too much pressure can damage the sake.
(bottom) This is the series of Fune presses I mentioned above. it is an older styled press which is much more labor intensive, and is still used in many breweries today, mainly for Daiginjo sakes. It requires the unfiltered sake to be poured into fabric bags by hand or by pump, and then loaded into the press tub by hand. Most of the pressing is done by gravity, only at the end is pressure from the press applied.

The final product is Shiboritate, or Fresh pressed sake! Not much tastes better than the sake scooped from the nozzle of the press.

Well that's it for today. I hope that you have found this interesting and informative. Please feel free to give me feedback and suggestions!

Meishu no Yutaka Staff
Carlin

English blog Launched!

Welcome all to the newly launched English weblog for Meishu no Yutaka. My name is Carlin, and I am creating this blog in the hopes that I can share a little bit of the knowledge I accumulate in my sake studies with other sake enthusiasts.

I find myself a long way from my former home of California, as I start my new life in Japan as an employee and future part owner of the biggest specialty sake store in Hokkaido. I have been working in Meishu no Yutaka off and on for the last 2 years and became a full time employee in Dec of 2008. I am in no way a sake expert, however having the privilege of being in a position so close to the heart of the sake world, I thought that it would be fun to share some of my experiences with those who may not have the chance to see the sake world first hand.

Well that's enough of the formal stuff for me. Lets move on to the fun stuff.
As a staff member of a sake shop it is part of my Job to taste all new sake that comes into the store (all work and no play make Carlin a dull boy). Together with the sake that I drink out-side of the shop, I get to taste a fair amount of sake. My intention with this blog is to post Tasting notes on as much of the sake as I can (although unfortunately there are some brands of sake that I am not allowed to post to the Internet), Any and all trips that I make to sake breweries, and as much insider info as possible about the inner workings of the sake world.

That being said, what better way to kick off a new sake blog than to post tasting notes on one of my favorite sakes, from one of the most sought after Breweries in Japan: DENSHU!

Denshu 田酒
Tokubetsu Junmai Shiboritate Nama Genshu
特別純米搾りたて生原酒
Polish rate: 55% / Alcohol: 18%
SMV: ＋２
Brewery: Nishida Shuzou / Aomori Prefecture

Tasting notes:
On the nose: Sweet, fresh, clean, with a lot of Koji and rice fragrances. Not a lot of the yeasty unpasteurized characteristics that you get from a normal nama-zake.

On the palate: Dry with good acid balance, strong bite on the finish coming from the high alcohol content. Full bodied with a lot of sweetness from the rice carried through on a nice bed of spiciness you get from a good Genshu.

Other notes:
Denshu tokubetsu Junmai Shiboritatte Nama Genshu comes in one size: 180ml.
Because it is a Genshu it has a relatively high alcohol content, so be careful not to drink too much.
Nishida Shuzou is a small brewery so their production is quite limited.
This sake is very hard to find in Japan, let alone the rest of the world, so if you find it else-where, I take my hat off to you my friends.
If you can find it, I highly recommend drinking this little beauty, or any other sake under the Denshu label.


This is a new endevour for me so please feel free to give me feedback and suggestions on the Blog. I want to make this as fun and informitive as possible! Also please excuse my long windedness this time around, I promise the posts to come will be a little shorter.

Cheers,

Meishu no Yutaka staff
Carlin