- TheCog
- Jul 30, 2012
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I AM ZEPA AND I CLAIM THESE LANDS BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST
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Don't know much about pairings since I just drink it with any old Japanese food, but I drink a lot of sake if you have any other questions or just want a general overview.
I am *extremely* interested in a general overview/where to get started with sake.
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Apr 3, 2021 12:47
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Apr 25, 2024 18:15
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- TheCog
- Jul 30, 2012
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I AM ZEPA AND I CLAIM THESE LANDS BY RIGHT OF CONQUEST
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Well, caveat that I'm not trained or anything, I just drink a lot of sake, but there's basically two elements I consider when I'm choosing a bottle
The first is tanrei versus houjun. I think of this as kinda like a white wine versus red wine distinction, with tanrei being more like white. Tanrei sake is a lot lighter with less of an aftertaste, you'll see the terms sappari and karui applied a lot of times. Another one you'll see for tanrei is kirei. Houjun is often described as having a meatier taste, but the flavor that really comes out for me is mushrooms? It's kind of like a tanrei sake with a strong undertone of something funky and fermented underneath resolving into an aftertaste of the undertone. The main flavor description I've noticed is koku (usually written as コクが有り).
The second element is comparatively straightforward, it's just sweetness. This is probably the easiest element to judge since there's a scale called nihonshudo that most bottles will have a value for on the label. The lower the value, the sweeter the sake. That brings in another set of terms though, amakuchi(甘口) and karakuchi(辛口) which just mean sweet or dry. Another that you'll see occasionally is umakuchi(旨口) which is exclusively applied to houjun sake (afaik).
Sorry this probably isn't a great overview, and I know there's a lot of stuff that I'm leaving out like アミノ酸度 because I don't understand it, and the various grades 本醸造、純米、特別純米、吟醸、大吟醸 which I've never found to have much meaning except that the 大吟醸 sakes are almost always tanrei. Sake brewing is incredibly complicated and the combination of rice, koji, water, and technique produce incredibly different sake even if they're both 純米大吟醸 or whatever. The wikipedia sake article has a pretty good description of all that stuff if you're still interested tho.
Sorry I know this isn't a great overview, but like I said I'm not trained in this stuff. That said, I know enough to consistently find bottles I like so, good enough I guess.
*edit*
I just realized this also doesn't get into にごり, 原酒, or 山廃, but that can be shelved for a bit I guess, or someone else can chime in.
This is actually exactly what I needed as a primer, thanks! Gonna go buy some sake this weekend, will report back.
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Apr 3, 2021 15:08
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Apr 3, 2021 12:47
