Change is inevitable. But that doesn’t mean that it always comes smoothly or that it ever proceeds according to plan. In the sake industry, change usually comes slowly and begrudgingly. Sometimes, it comes too late. Sake breweries have traditionally been family-owned and passed down from father to son. If there were no sons, the first…
Welcome to the 20th issue of Sake Today! With this issue we wrap up our fifth full year of publishing the best English-language sake-related content currently available. If you think sake has grown in popularity and accessibility these past few years, just wait to see what the near future holds. With sake getting more and…
As sake asserts itself in markets around the world, there are more and more tasting contests that tally up evaluation scores and award medals. This spring, I participated as a judge in three within the span of a month. Each had hundreds and hundreds of entries. There were even more in which I did…
I often say that the sake brewing industry is idiosyncratic in a myriad ways. One primary example is that, unlike businesses in other Japanese industries, sake breweries have almost always been family businesses, handed down from father to son (and more recently, to daughters, too), from generation to generation. Many can trace their lineage back…
(Kazuhiro Sakurai, holding a bottle of Dassai 23) Successful companies rise to greatness through leadership. Without it, talent too readily loses focus. Company culture struggles to find identity. Work becomes mere motion, not a source of inspiration that fuels itself in a virtuous circle, leading to meaningful products and services. Dassai is quite possibly…
Minneapolis. San Francisco. Austin. Denver. New York City. Boston. Seattle. Nashville. Portland (Oregon). Kittery. San Diego. What do all these places–and a few more in the US–have in common? They are all the home of a mini-sake brewery, run by local folks with a passion for sake. Add to that Canada (Toronto and Vancouver), New…
I love blind tasting. It truly excites me. Admittedly, I do not get that many opportunities in which a sake is placed before me and I am told absolutely nothing about it. When that does happen, though, it is a most enjoyable experience. Why? Because there are no wrong answers, and there is no assessment…
Daiginjo Chotokusen While ginjo aromas are usually described in terms of melon, banana and apple, the ginjo aromas of this sake are like a Venn diagram of them all; no one element stands out any more than another. The fusion of these all creates a hard-to-describe but distinguished and refined aroma that leads to a…
You just never know how things will go. When we embarked on this Sake Today project, I admit we were facing the unknown. The time seemed right, and a good dose of luck and providence seemed to be involved as well. Sure, sake seemed to be gaining in popularity, but was there enough interest to…