Freestyle Friday - Sake Part 1 - Episode #39
Channel: Wine World TV
Date: 2021-04-23

In this Freestyle Friday episode of WWTV, I take you to Japan. We explore the national beverage Sake. This is part one of a two-parter. Today we cover history and basic production. Next week we go deeper into history, related beverages, the nitty gritty of production, and a lot of terms. I taste two sakes today and I’ll taste a 3rd sake next week. The sakes for this episode are the Miyashita Sake Brewery Mighty Peak and the Higashiyama Brewery Konteki Pearls of Simplicity. This is a long one, so get comfortable.

Links for the show:

Serious Eats article on Junmai Sake - https://drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/03/sake-school-all-about-junmai-what-is-junmai.html

YAMADA NISHIKI: THE KING OF SAKE RICE - From the Japanese Bar website - https://www.thejapanesebar.com/sake-rice/yamadanishiki-山田錦/

Sake entry from Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake

GuildSomm - This is one of the best online resources for people like me. This link is for the general website since its Sake page is paid content - https://www.guildsomm.com

Ibaraki Guide - A general website of the Ibaraki Prefecture. This is an English link - https://english.ibarakiguide.jp

Vine Connections - Importer of Konteki - Direct product page of the Higashiyama Brewery - https://www.vineconnections.com/japanese-sake/grades/junmai-daiginjo-daiginjo/pearls-of-simplicity/

Sake Brand Tatsuriki from Honda Shoten - Link to a page on the Sake International Association website that contains a video about Chairman Takeyoshi Honda - http://sakeinternational.org/honda-shoten-tatsuriki-sake-brewery/

A Comprehensive Guide to Sake - From 2011, but nothing has really changed in how sake is made or the regulations - https://www.nrib.go.jp/English/sake/pdf/guidesse01.pdf

National Research Institute of Brewing (English page) - The Guide linked to above is also available on this page along with other resources - https://www.nrib.go.jp/English/sake/sakeinfo.html

How to Pronounce Japanese Like a Native Speaker - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7MMuiL9s7Fo

LCBO - Want to see what the RS (Residual Sugar for a wine is? Well, LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario, a Canadian state-ran wine shop), among other ones in Canada, lists it in the product details for most of  their wines.

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