A unique Sake Experience

www.hyperjapan.co.uk/

By Giovanna Flores

Eleven breweries from mainland Japan took part in this year’s Sake Experience, each providing two or three of their selection for Earl’s Court’s tasting pleasure. After queuing until time lost meaning, and witnessing a sad-eyed, sore-footed woman trading in her ticket for a £15 refund; those of us who had proven ourselves worthy were finally allowed inside. Having accomplished the mean feat of giving in our tickets, we each received a tiny cup, ballot sheet and handy brochure in return. Joining the huddled masses, who held their tiny sake-tasting cups out to the nearest bottle-holders with indecent desperation, our patience was tested once more. Waiting for the group in front of us to hurry it up and swallow already, wondering what could possibly be so interesting about every single taste, and flipping through our technicolour brochures, we learned that the best way to appreciate sake is to first take in the colour, the aroma, and finally the taste and texture. Ready to forgo instant gratification, then, and expecting to have to nod approval at a lot of subtle flavours I wouldn’t really understand, I was happily surprised at station No. 1, the Ichinokura Brewery. Treated to a quick lesson in Japanese (Ichi = Number One, Kura = Brewery) and poured our thimblefuls of Premium Sake, we finally had our first taste. As many of the breweries would tell us, the water in Japan is tastier than any British H2O. All misguided patriotism aside, this was easy to believe when swilling mouthfuls of Ichinokura’s chilled Kuranohana, which warmed the insides and yet was intensely refreshing. Even more impressive than the still, traditional sake, were the less common sparkling variations. Particular favourites included Ichinokura’s Suzune Wabi, but not to seem intimidated by long and foreign names, the Sho Chiku Bai Shirakabegura brewery’s sparkling MIO was astonishingly easy to drink, and as the pourer suggested, ‘dangerously’ so. Despite my awkward reluctance to ask too many questions, I still managed to accrue some basic knowledge, and learn’t that most of the sake were made purely from brewery-specific rice, and regional water – the rice polished down by machines as tall as buildings, until as little as 23% of the original grain might remain (Dassai 23 from the Asahi Shuzo brewery). As enjoyable as the overall experience was, two of the breweries’ selections deserve earnest recommendation for their selections: the first being the Gekkeikan Sake brewery, the second the Mikawa Syuzoujyou brewery. I commend the former for its Nigori Sake, and its Peach Sake Liquer; both of which were unlike any of the other sake on display. The Nigori was unusual in the fact that its rice was polished to just 30% of its original size, fermented, and finally served unfiltered. The texture was unlike any drink I can recall, creamy, somewhat like dessicated coconut, and just wholly unusual. Conversely, their peach liquer was reminiscent of schnapps, also unique in the Sake Experience, for being the only flavoured liquer available. This polarity of provision was such a pleasant surprise in the midst of a crowd of probably lovely, but altogether too close to me, strangers, that I thanked the servers out of more than just polite habit, momentarily forgetting my exhausted feet. The Mikawa Syuzoujyou brewery was notable for an entirely different reason. Their offering was the Maibijin Choiki Jo’on Jukusei 2000, a twelve year old vintage, and its newly brewed counterpart, the Maibijin Junmaishu. The servers told us how only a thousand bottles of the vintage sake were made, and this made my empty-stomached, slightly tipsy self feel like a time-traveller on a mission to save the world by drinking Japan. Once finished and in some need of sobering, attendees were able to purchase and vote for their favourite bottles, many of which had sold out by the end of the day. All in all, I can honestly say that the Sake Experience was my favourite part of Hyper Japan, and it is well worth the time, pain and money.