This year’s pick for some of the world’s best sakes pair nicely with western cuisine, say pundits at the International Wine Challenge 2018
On July 10, at the world’s largest sake competition, International Wine Challenge (IWC) 2018, Adatara Ginjo was crowned the year’s champion sake. Selected by 59 experts from 15 countries, it topped a world-class line-up of 1,639 labels across all varieties of sake.
Its producer, Okunomatsu-shuzou, was established in 1716 in Fukushima prefecture, but it has grown to embrace a rather unorthodox process. As its 19th generation sake maker, George Yusa reveals, this winning sake is made using wine yeast and is the only label in their portfolio of 240 types of sake to do so.
“It was 30 years ago that my father brought back wine yeast, and cultivated it at our brewery,” Yusa shares, adding that it was only 10 years after that the brewery began using this yeast to make this sake.
He affirms the importance of yeast in the sake making process and how this specific type of fermentation (using wine yeast) “creates a very unique aroma”.
Normally, koji-yeast is used to make sake, and is originally extracted from native yeast that live in sake breweries; there are even sake makers who prefer to use yeast cultivated in their own brewery. Fact is, the use of wine yeast to make sake is extremely rare.
One of the judges, Antony Moss, Master of Wine, from the UK describes the aroma as that of “tropical fruits, like mango”, adding that it would go well with aromatic herbs, such as basil. “I’d recommend to pair this with Italian cuisine,” he declares.
Yusa adds: “Actually, this sake is one of our bestsellers in Japan; the younger generation is familiar with western cuisine and that might be the reason this sake is so popular in the Japanese market as well.”
It also begs the question: Could the use of wine yeast become more popular in the future?
Adatara ginjo is not a junmai type of sake, as distilled alcohol is added. It is also low in acidity, but pundits like Moss say this stronger impression of alcohol is what cleanses the palate and removes fishy or gamy smells when enjoyed with food.
That being said, the more aromatic koji-yeast sake is the current trend across the globe. Its fruity and floral aroma is similar to that of white wine and is understandably more universally appealing, even if the consumer isn’t used to aroma of rice.