Tataka Kuni and Sato No Homare

Over the weekend I had the pleasure of testing two more 300mL bottles of sake. It really is the perfect size for taste tests.



Tataka Kuni

A very dry and fragrant Junmai brewed in the Tochigi prefecture. Pretty smooth and well rounded, but nothing approaching the Star Filled Sky in terms of smoothness.















Sato No Homare

This Junmai Ginjo brewed in Ibarala prefecture is quite unique because the toji (brew master) responsible for it is peculiar in one very special way—she’s a woman! As toji are normally men, this is a very rare and wonderful thing. I think this is almost immediately apparent in tasting this sake. It has a very fruity, full nose, and the taste is strong, fragrant and quite “compact” in its way. Packs quite a punch.

Not my favorite sake out there, but it’s certainly unique!

Mantensei, "Star Filled Sky"

I got a 300mL bottle of this fine elixir recently. Brewed by Suwa Shuzo in the Tottori Prefecture, this Junmai Ginjo is very clean and clear. The nose is somewhat fruity but the taste is wonderfully soft on the the rocks.

This smoothness supposedly is a result of the water used. On the brewer's website it reports that the water in this small and remote area of Japan is very clean, very pure, and abundant, so it is not only used to make the sake, but also to clean all the instruments used in the brewing process.

The unusual side effect I experienced, and this may be where the name "Star Filled Sky" came from, was extremely vivid dreams. After drinking some, I relaxed with a book for a while, then went to bed. That night I had two dreams of alarming clarity and strange proportion. One was terrifying, and I woke up at 5am shaken by the mental images I just saw. I soon fell back to sleep and had another dream which was also very clear, but this time in a more soothing and enjoyable way. Maybe there's something in that water in Tottori...

Welcome!

Hello! This is my new blog which will chronicle my adventures into the world of sake. I don't really know that much about the Japanese drink yet, but it has always fascinated me. I just wrote to Timothy, whose blog, UrbanSake, is very informative and has helped me tremendously so far in understanding the differences between the different classifications of sake. He's made some recommendations which I plan to follow up on directly.

Stay tuned! More to come.