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Sake Newsletter #2 (October-2004)
October 4, 2004 Beau Timken

Sake Newsletter #2 (October-2004)

Welcome to the second installment of the True Sake Newsletter. 

Firstly, thank you for you active participation in our 1st Year Anniversary Sale. We sold over 400 bottles of sake that weekend, and gave away lots of free sake! 

Did you know that October 1st is the nationally recognized Day of Sake in Japan? Next year it is our intention to have a large tasting to celebrate this most holy of days.

 

In this Newsletter:

  • Store Update

  • Sake Presentation in Restaurants

  • Special Events

  • Ask Beau

  • Secret Word



STORE UPDATE:

True Sake is right on the cusp of selling out of the Summer Nama Sakes and the arrival of the Fall Namas. As you recall “Nama Sake” is sake that has not been pasteurized the typical two times. It is “living” sake and really should be tried by all. As I tell our customers Nama sake tastes like 3-dimensional sake as opposed to 2-dimensional pasteurized sake. It is bright and tastes wildly different from its pasteurized counterparts. We have sold out of the Otokoyama Nama, but still have the Umenishiki Daiginjo Nama, and the Ohyama Nama. We also carry both of these sakes in the pasteurized version and it is fun to compare and contrast.


I have spent the last two years trying to convince my importers to bring some Sparkling sakes into the States.  Sparkling sake is a relative newcomer to the sake world in Japan, a world dominated by males who drink bigger flavored sake. In an effort to attract females and younger sake drinkers brewers have started to produce low alcohol sakes that are at times sweeter and lighter than traditional sakes.  This also includes Sparkling sake, which is both bright and refreshing.  Currently, True sake carries an expensive sparkling junmai dai ginjo (Okunomatsu FN) from Okunomatsu brewery who produce this sake so that it can be used in the winner’s circle to spray victorious racers in Japanese Formula One races. Who needs French Champagne?  But at $112 per pop this is a special occasion sake for sure. 


In this regard, True Sake is introducing two new “affordable” sparkling sakes\ in the form of Harushika and Poochi Poochi. Harushika (300ml/$15) is incredibly bright and sprightly. It has a beautifully refreshing sweetness that makes for a fun and bubbly adventure. Poochi Poochi (330ml/$12) despite having the worst name in the business is slightly drier than Harushika and has a deeper richer flavor. It is also incredibly refreshing and light, and they both are about 8% alcohol compared to the typical 15-16% for sake and 13-14% for wine. The next time an occasion calls for champagne, remember the headache and think about sparkling sake instead. 


SAKE PRESENTATIONS IN RESTAURANTS: 

Firstly, sake is meant to be enjoyed, albeit out of the perfect sake cup or a pair of cupped hands. But that said, there is a right way and a bunch of wrong ways to serve sake.  Sometimes restaurants know nothing and serve sake out of bar shot glasses or they know sake and try to serve it out of martini glasses. There is really nothing wrong with either presentation but the signal it sends is confusing. If you were to get a thick shot glass filled with sake, what is your first inclination? To throw that sucker back! To treat it like a shot of ta-kill-ya or Jägermeister. Sake is not hard liquor so why serve it in a bar shot glass? Secondly, the fashionable martini glass, which is good for nigori – unfiltered or cloudy sake – but not that great for filtered cold sake. Why? Firstly it makes your mouth open wider and you take a bigger sip and secondly the fluid hits all over your pallet rather than sending a controlled flow over the tip of the tongue. It also reinforces the hard alcohol image as usually a martini glass if filled with ummmm martinis. 


The third black-eye to look for are the restaurants that sell cold sake out of hot sake Tokkuri (those funnel shaped servers). This is maddening, because invariably the Tokkuri is accompanied by two little ceramic sake cups, which are not ideal for cold sake.  The image is wrong, the style is wrong and the feeling is wrong.  If this should happen to you remember it is no big deal, but try casually asking for a white wine glass instead. Then by all means pass on the restaurant's name to me at info@truesake.com and I will follow it up. Small water glasses work as well. In fact do a taste test and see which vessel you prefer drinking your sake out of, the little ceramic cup or a wine glass etc. The bottom-line is to have fun with sake, but we can also do more to enhance the “picture” of sake for those who do not yet understand this mystical beverage.


SPECIAL EVENTS:

Wed October 13th – Nigori 101 – A night dedicated to unfiltered sake.  This is another world famous “True Sake Tasting Event,” which will feature 7 different imported Nigoris. Per usual we will enlighten only 40 people at a cost of $40 per person. Trust me when I tell you that these events fill up very quickly! Nigori 101 will include 7 delicious unfiltered sakes, various snacks, and some serious sake Edu-entertainment in a really cool environment. We have selected an “urban oasis” called Capella on 14th street between Mission and South Van Ness ( North side of the street. Don’t let the graffiti fool you the interior is glorious.) The ultimate goal of the evening, besides having fun exploring some great sake is to change the name of nigori from “Cloudy” to “Foggy sake” in respect to our fair city. 


Secondly, I want to inform you that the superb restaurant 5th FLOOR has vastly expanded their sake and food-pairing menu with the help of yours truly. This restaurant excels in cuisine and service. Wine Director Emily Wines (not joking!) has decided that the future of sake is now, and she has produced a sake tasting menu of note. Go see sake in the western-cuisine context at its best.  5th FLOOR 


ASK BEAU: 

I received several great questions on the web site but one stood out from the rest, and I would like to address Gordon H. who wrote “How can I read the sake bottle dates to ensure fresh sake?”  Gordon, freshness is a factor, but it is not the end-all-be-all as many would make you believe. 10-15 years ago you were guaranteed dead or dying sake for sure when ordering at a sushi bar. Why do you think they heated it so much? So you wouldn’t taste how lousy the sake had become. Overheating became a masking device that stuck in American sake culture. Thus, who cared if the sake was fresh when you were just going to nuke it in anycase? 


Today, however, with premium sakes that are being served chilled it is harder to mask stale or off-sake. As such there are several pointers that one can look for to make sure that you are getting sake that is fine for consumption.  I like to tell my customers that sake does well for about 14 months after bottling. Truthfully, sake keeps much longer and it becomes a factor of how adventurous you want to be. Many perceive “fresher is better” but I have had many sakes that were bottled a month or two before I tasted them and they tasted young, as if they had not fully grown up. Personally, I feel the flavor develops in the bottle in most cases, and as such it is not necessary to rush to the youngest bottling date. (Nama sakes are best consumed as fresh as possible!) 


In one instance a gentleman came to the store wanting badly to buy an ultra premium Daiginjo that is polished to a remarkable 28% with 72% of each grain being removed. This particular sake is only brewed once per year, and the date happened to be exactly a year old. The gentleman did not want the sake. I know for a fact that that sake was fine, and tasted like it did when it was only 6 months old, because I had consumed it three nights earlier. But he said that he was told not to buy anything over a year old. His loss!


There is a movement in Japan to get bottling dates on more and more labels. Basically brewers didn’t date bottles so that consumers wouldn’t do what the gentleman mentioned above did. If you draw attention to the date then people will focus on it. There is no set place or type of date used in this process. Sometimes the date is on the main label, and sometimes it is on the back label. It is hard to see, as they use black typewritten letters usually in the traditional 04-07, which is 2004-July. We flip these number positions around in the US thus it would read 07-04. There is also another dating process, which uses the “Emperor’s Calendar.” This dating system begins each time a new emperor takes power. The last time this happened was 16 years ago in 1988. Thus the first year was 01 and this year of 2004 is 16.  So if a label reads 16-03 then you can surmise that the sake was bottled in March of 2004. Likewise, if a date reads 15-02 then you would realize that this sake was bottled in February 2003. I would steer clear of sakes that were bottled in the year 14 as in 2002.  


If you have any questions whatsoever please send them to askbeau@truesake.com


SECRET WORD: 

Because of the success of the last Newsletter’s “secret word,” I wanted to shift the focus away from me giving out free bottles of average sake to giving big discounts on sakes worth trying. Thus if and when you utter this month’s “secret word” you will receive half off two beautiful sakes (Kaika and Kamikokoro) – try one or try them both! And the word is MT. FUJI!


Thank you and keep being True to your sake dreams.