My problem with saké was not drinking it but understanding it. I speak fluent grape, but the progression of rice from paddy to cup was as foreign to me as the Japanese language. The differences between sakés are subtle — there are no reds and whites, generally no use of oak and rice is just rice … or so I thought. As for finding the best, the exquisite versions carefully created by skilled tojis (master brewers), I wasn’t sure where to start. So off I went to Japan.
The first revelation was that rice is not, in fact, just rice. The finest strain for saké — the equivalent of Burgundy pinot noir — is Yamada Nishiki, and its natural home is Hyogo Prefecture on the south coast. “The most important element for Yamada Nishiki is climate, and here we are sheltered by mountains,” Hideo Shoji of Japan-San Travel told me. Shoji-san created New Moon Sake to support growers in small communities; the sakés are from individual paddy fields. Logically enough, the prefecture in which Yamada Nishiki grows best is also one of the country’s best places to find delicious sakés. His latest, R04BY, is fruity yet fresh with a creamy undertone and won platinum at last year’s prestigious Kura Master competition in France — a good indication of how single-paddy sakés can have the quality, and the cachet, of single-vineyard wines.
At Akashi-Tai, a producer of top sakés in Akashi, near Kobe, the fourth-generation toji Kimio Yonezawa offered to show me exactly how this strange and wonderful drink is made. First, he explained, the rice husk must be sanded away. How much polish is important: whittle your grain down to, say, 60 per cent (known as Ginjo) and you’re throwing away 40 per cent. Then the rice must be steamed and a special mould called koji has to be persuaded to form to break down the starches (since rice, unlike grapes, contains none of the natural sugars yeast needs for fermentation). While other moulds are unpleasant or even dangerous, koji, which is used in soy sauce and miso, is a superfood.
The best sakés contain only water, steamed rice, yeast and koji (if you see Junmai — “rice and water only” — on the label, that’s what you’re getting). Junmai Ginjo is fruity and delicate: the premier cru of the saké world. The grand cru is Junmai Daiginjo, polished to at least 50 per cent and complex, savoury and perfumed.
“Long ago everyone used local rice and local water,” said Yasuyuki Yoshida, a seventh-generation toji of Yoshida Sake Brewery in Ishikawa Prefecture. Now Yamada Nishiki has become the go-to rice all over Japan. Yoshida considers this a shame, so he has coaxed farmers into replanting local varieties and he uses water from Mount Haku, a dormant volcano. “This is made from hundred-year-old snow,” he told me, as we tried his rich, textured Yamahai Junmai Sake.
On the recommendation of Natsuki Kikuya, London’s foremost saké expert, I also visited Shata Shuzo, a small producer channelling funds from its floral Tsunagu Ishikawa saké to the recovery effort from the earthquake that hit nearby Noto in January 2024. Its top saké, Tengumai Yamahai Jikomi Junmai, was one of my favourites, as rich and savoury as an Oloroso sherry. Like sherry, saké is extremely food friendly. At Kai Kaga, my lovely ryokan in Ishikawa, I roamed the impressive list of local sakés, which paired beautifully with their dishes: Kano Shuzo’s lemony Yamashiro Junmai with lotus root dumpling in shellfish sauce, the honeyed Kikuhime Yamahai Junmai with duck. As the Japanese say: “Saké does not get into fights with food.”
That’s one difference from wine. But drinking Akashi-Tai’s perfumed Junmai Daiginjo Genshu, made from Yamada Nishiki grown 20 miles from the brewery, I was struck by the similarities. Both taste of a special, specific place and can take a good meal to another level. The best will offer revelations with every sip.
akashisakebrewery.com, newmoon.jp, tedorigawa.com, tengumai.co.jp, jokigen.co.jp, niizawa-brewery.co.jp, museumofsake.co.uk. Ampersand Travel (ampersandtravel.com/japan) can organise the New Moon tour; Sake Tours (saketours.com) can organise bespoke trips and brewery tours
Five top tipples from Austria
by Jane MacQuitty
2022 Kollwentz Chardonnay, Leithakalk, Burgenland
A tasty barrel-fermented, burgundy-aping, racy chardonnay with gentle, nutty quince and apple fruit.
£34.95, leaandsandeman.co.uk
2023 Alte Reben Riesling, Weingut Wess, Kremstal
This gorgeous greeny-gold, floral, sparky yet peachy old-vine riesling was made by Christina Wess.
£59 for a magnum, thewinesociety.com
2023 Grüner Veltliner Smaragd, Ried Achleiten, Prager, Wachau
Showstopper of a ripe yet dry smaragd, with oodles of citrus and apple blossom, from a favourite family estate.
£71, bbr.com
2022 Wieninger Wiener Gemischter Satz Ried Ulm Nussberg
Delicious aperitif made from a hotchpotch of grapes, bursting with beguiling floral, citrussy fruit.
£34.95, nywines.co.uk
2022 Ried Kulm Blaufränkisch, Heidi Schröck & Söhne, Burgenland
A jolly pepper and red forest berry-fruited 2022, made from Burgenland’s best red grape, blaufränkisch.
£29, hedonism.co.uk
