The Complex World of Sake

Sake has been a part of Japanese life and culture for some 2000 years. It is sometimes erroneously called “rice wine” but as I found out last week at a tasting of premium sake, some comparisons to wine are difficult to avoid.

Sake is not wine but a brewed beverage made from rice, which has been milled to varying degrees, then washed and steamed before being mixed with yeast and Koji (steamed rice onto which a special mold has been cultivated). The brewing process is called “multiple parallel fermentation” because the processes of converting starch to sugar (carried out by the Koji mold) and sugar to alcohol (carried out by the yeasts) occur at the same time.

Like wine, there are different classifications for sake from basic and widely consumed table sake (Futsushu) to premium and super-premium sake (Ginjoshu, Dai-ginjoshu, Junmaishu, Honjozoshu). The Japanese government specifies these denominations.

Premium sake is made using special rice varieties, which are different from table rice. Like the best quality wine grapes, these varieties are more difficult to grow and harvest and have specific locales where they thrive.

Premium sake, like quality wine, is hand crafted by small, artisanal breweries throughout Japan in areas called prefectures. These are similar to the various wine appellations in that they tend to have a regional style of sake for which they are known.

John Gauntner —considered by many to be the foremost non-Japanese expert on sake— moderated the tasting and seminar I attended.  According to Gauntner, there are no absolutes in the world of sake and no short answers to most questions. In other words, sake is complex, diverse, and infinitely intriguing—just like wine.

Tags: wine | sake | Japan