SAKE: RICE WINE TAKES OFF
John Frederick Walker

Roger Dagorn, the sommelier at Chanterelle, offers from about 12 special Japanese sakes, usually by the glass, at prices ranging from $12 to $25. He pairs sake with the restaurant’s French dishes like Mousse of Lobster with Buerre Blanc Sauce, not just the raw fish course that might appear on the tasting menu. “Many of our customers will order sake again, once they’ve tried it,” he says.

So far, sake imports total 250,000 cases a year, and are growing. Countless new boutique brands join the category alongside category leaders like Gekkeikan. Enthusiastic restaurateurs and sommeliers have helped double the market for imported sake in the past eight years. Retailers in major markets have been noticing the growing buzz. “People try good sake in a restaurant, then come in and buy a bottle,” says Michael Yurch of New York’s Sherry-Lehmann Wine & Spirits. Customers at this landmark Madison Avenue shop find a selection of upscale sakes priced from $22 to $150, imported by Kazu Yamakazi, who represents the Japan Prestige Sake Association, a trade group of producers.

But the real epicenter of sake interest in the US is the bay area of San Francisco, where scores of restaurants like Sushi on North Beach and Sake Bomb feature dozens of selections. Some, like Midori Mushi Sushi, have separate sake lounges. What’s more, sake-based cocktails are all the rage. Bartenders say their popularity is partly due to sake’s exoticism and its lower alcohol, but mostly it’s because they’re new and fun. (Another plus: sake is largely free of hangover-producing congeners.)
This new cocktail trend has now spread nationwide, and numerous versions of the Saketini, Purple Rain, and the Sake Shooter are served in trendy bars from Georgetown to Seattle. Sake purists shudder, but all these concoctions are introducing more drinkers to the serious stuff — premium and ultrapremium sake — served all by itself. Just as with cult wines or premium spirits, bars offer “flights” of three or four straight sakes in small glasses to compare.

Two years ago, the first retail store devoted entirely to sake, True Sake, opened on Hayes Street in San Francisco. Proprietor Beau Timken now carries 150 brands of Japanese sake, from $6 to $200 a bottle. Although three-quarters of the sake consumed in the U.S. is supplied by a half-dozen West Coast sake breweries with links to or owned by Japanese producers, he doesn’t sell US-produced sake. “It’s widely available already,” he points out. “I’ll let others do that.”

Timken sees himself as a middleman: “Once people taste fine sake, it sells itself.” True Sake works on developing “comeback customers” who are excited to discover a whole new world of taste and return to explore further. “Then it’s my job to get them to define what they like in their mouths,” Timken says. In turn, he gives feedback from “the front lines” – his customers – to his suppliers to ensure he can respond to his customers’ rapidly evolving tastes.

One of his suppliers is Chris Pearce, owner of World Sake Imports, a five-year old company based in Honolulu with offices in San Francisco and New York. Pearce brings in 30 different brands from eight Japanese sake producers. His range retails from $20 to $80. “It’s the premium end that’s selling particularly well,” he says. “The volume of sake exports to the US are growing at about 8 percent a year, but the value of the shipments is going up at a much higher rate.”

The potential sake market in the US appears to be heading in several directions. The developing connoisseur’s market seems certain to develop along lines similar to the market for ultra-premium and cult wines, and center on the finest and scarcest Japanese sakes. The expanding use of sake as an exotic cocktail ingrediant will continue to drive depletions of inexpensive and mid-priced sakes, both domestic and imported, as will the 7,000 Japanese restaurants nationwide, who use more sake in cooking than they actually serve.

Increasingly, wine drinkers open to new tastes and influenced by the growing fascination for sake could make it one of their options when dining out, leading more high-end restauranteurs to add better sakes to their wine lists. Finally, flavored sakes, both US and Japanese, will doubtless find an audience among those likely to drawn initially by the familiar taste of pears or limes or hazelnuts than the underlying beverage. Timken even sees a future for sparkling sake.

But all this depends on getting more people to taste sake. Help is on the way: Pearce is a director of The Joy of Sake, the largest public sake tasting event outside Japan. It begins this August in Honolulu and moves to San Francisco and New York in September.
And Rocky Aoki, the founder of the Benihana restaurant empire, has just launched the RHA Sake Club. When he opened his first Benihana in New York in 1964, he served domestic sake the way Americans expected it: hot. Now he’s taken on a new challenge: spreading the word about fine imported sake. “I want people to drink and learn about it,” he says.

A sake boom in the US will do more than drive imports — it will also bring attention to American-produced sake. Looking down the road, Aoki warns it’s a mistake to “underestimate the potential of US sake. Remember that California wine was once ignored. It ended up competing in quality with French wine.”

SAKE 101
Although brewed from fermented rice flour, sake resembles wine more than it does beer. Typically 15 to 17 percent alcohol, it’s close to sherry in strength. There are no vintages, and screwcaps are nearly universal. Apart from special aged versions, sake is intended for drinking after purchase, although it will keep a year. (Refrigeration helps preserve freshness.) Today’s fine sakes are intended to be served chilled. The tradition of heating largely belongs to the past, when sakes were typically fuller and sweeter, with a woody taste; serving them warm helped to mask their roughness.

The subtle differences among sakes comes from the rice used (there are 65 varieties), the water source, and koji (the mold that converts rice starch into fermentable sugar), and local traditions, all of which contribute to regional styles among some 1800 kura or sake breweries. Each of their brands comes in several different types or grades. The top categories — daiginjo and ginjo — constitute less than 10 percent of all the sake made, use highly polished rice and traditional hand methods. Key categories include:

Daiginjo:Super-premium sake, made with rice milled to 50% of its original size.

Ginjo:Premium sake, made with rice milled to 60% of its original size.

Junmai:Better quality sakes which have no added alcohol (a common practice in mass-produced sakes). Some Ginjo and Daiginjo sakes are also Junmai. Some brewers add tiny amounts to their top grades to bring out flavor.

Honjozo:Good quality sakes which may have alcohol added.

A SELECTION OF SAKES

Monokawa “Diamond” Junmai Ginjo Medium Dry Whiffs of peach, a full, round, fruity flavor with mineral notes and a clean, dry finish makes this US bottling a good choice with crab cakes. Suggested retail price: $13 (750 ml) Available through: SakeOne, Forest Grove, OR (800) 550-7253.

Kamoizumi “Nigori Ginjo” This unfiltered sake requires shaking to bring up the milky haze (“summer snow”) which adds to the luscious creamy texture. Sharp, lemony, earthy flavors suggest matching with Thai or Vietnamese fare. Suggested retail price: $23 (720 ml) Available through: World Sake Imports NY, NY (212) 965-9291.

Meibo “Yowanotsuki” Junmai A new-style low-alcohol sake (8%). Buttery, complex nose and clear, tart, fruity flavors and a sour lime finish make this particularly refreshing aperitif. Suggested retail price: $24 (500 ml) Available through: Japan Prestige Sake Institute, NY, NY (212) 924-8189.

Wakatake Daiginjo “Onikoroshi” Delicate aromas that hint at soft cheese rinds and cantaloupe, a silky texture, elegant savoriness, and a lingering, tart, complex finish add refinement to seduction. Try with delicate fish such as lemon sole. Suggested retail price: $43 (720 ml) Available through: Japan Prestige Sake Institute, NY, NY (212) 924-8189.

Masumi Daiginjo “Yumedono” A subtle, fragrant nose of ginger and grass leads into layered, complex flavors that fan out into faint spiciness. Lovely and lingering. From a 300-year old brewery. Serve with delicately seasoned dishes. Suggested retail price: $84 (720 ml) Available through: World Sake Imports NY, NY (212) 965-9291.

Horin Gekkeikan An ultra-premium daiginjo from the best-selling brand in the world. A fragrant, fruity-fennel nose and delicate, crisp, smooth taste make this a good choice with delicate fish dishes. Available from Sidney Frank Importing Co., Inc., New Rochelle, NY (914) 637-5700. Suggested retail price: $28 (720 ml).