Sake Season

We love sake any time of the year, but earlier this month, a new season of sake was celebrated in New York at the Exhibition of Sake Nouveau, where more than 200 guests were invited to taste 87 brands of sake from 17 breweries. In addition to talks on pairing food with sake and how temperature affects the flavor of sake, guests were able to meet sake brewers one on one and try 14 kinds of sake nouveau, a freshly made sake brewed from the most recent rice crop. All the sake nouveau for the event had just been bottled and is currently only available in Japan, but there were plenty of other sakes there to keep an eye out for here in the U.S.

Each guest was asked to cast votes for their favorite sakes from the event, and among the favorites were Yuzu Omoi, a bright and citrusy low-alcohol sake flavored with yuzu and brewed by Yamamoto Honke Co. Ltd. in Kyoto; Goriki, a full-bodied, dry junmai ginjo from Chiyomusubi Sake Brewery of Tottori Prefecture; and Taiten Shiragiku, a fragrant and fruity daiginjo from Shiragiku Shuzo Co. of Okayama Prefecture.

The Exhibition of Sake Nouveau was presented by Kuramoto US, a subsidiary of JCTO in Japan. For more info about the breweries that were on hand at the event, check out www.kuramotous.com.