Akashi Tai Tokubetsu Honjozo Sake, 72 cl

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For the brewery today, this means treating rice with respect. It means meticulous attention to detail and never cutting corners. It means sometimes going to extreme lengths, for instance making sake not only with the finest Hyogo-grown Yamada Nishiki rice, but also brewing with the Akashi aren’t traditional or artisan for its own sake, - as in sake, not sake - oh for goodness sake! I mean - never mind... Helpful as these categories are, they offer only a vague sense of the breadth and variety available, even within each category. The only way to really find out what you like is to taste broadly and see what lights up your palette. It’s brewed at the famous Hayashi Honten, one of a few Japanese breweries run by a woman, in Gifu prefecture. Jidai as well as the previous Tedorigawa Junmai are made using a more traditional yamahai method, which results in a richer and deeper taste and higher acidity. However, Judai is still ginjo sake with a fruity aroma full of apricot, pear, baked apple and a bit of herbal notes.

Heating enhances the impact of naturally occurring glutamic and saccinic acids, imbuing the sake with a pleasant mellowness. Warm sake aids in digestion and is mild on the body.We enlisted a panel of accredited experts and sake enthusiasts to put 12 varieties and limited releases to the test. They were looking for those that offered well-balanced acidity, complex flavour profiles and a moreish mouthfeel.

Due to the Japanese wanting to become more western, wanting to drink beers and whiskey and cognacs, the poor little sake brewers have really had a hard time," says Cheong-Thong. The thinning out has, however, had the unexpected benefit of improving production standards, and slowly sake's popularity is rebounding as more premium examples appear, in which history meets modern brewing techniques. Since then, Akashi have taken pride in brewing sakes with the choicest ingredients, that are more often than not produced locally. The brewery’s proximity to the coast and their insistence of tanks with Japanese cedar wood lids leads to sea air impacting the flavour of Akashi-Tai sakes with a slightly salty and particular character. The key ingredient, however, is the yamada-nishiki variety of rice. Known as a superior strain, it’s native to the region just north of Akashi, and considered for sake production above all else because its starch molecules are loosely grouped. This allows koji mold spores to easily enter the structure, and produce superior koji and malted rice.

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That flavour is dictated by each brewery's toji – the sake master. Unlike wine, where taste is as much about the soil as the choice of grapes and which kind of wood it's aged in, sake is purely about ingredients and technique, rather than terroir. Polishing is perhaps the key step in defining what kind of sake gets made. It involves stripping away each rice grain's outer husk to reduce down the amount of protein and fat available for fermentation and thus shorten the brewing process.

The texture becomes creamier and almost velvety with a very luxurious feel. The acidity softens and some sweetness appears. Jidai Yamahai Junmai Ginjo has a long and lavish finish and holds acidity at a higher temperature pretty well. As a rule, the more polished the rice, the more delicate the sake, with floral and fruit notes dominating. This tends to be the more refined, high-end stuff, whereas less polishing results in a deeper – some say rougher – style of sake, with bold umami flavours and a certain oiliness on the palette. Usu Nigori means a cloudy sake with very fine rice particles remaining after pressing. They give the sake a nice mouthful texture. Kanpai Tsuki is also genshu sake, undiluted with an ABV of 17%. Overall, all these characteristics make Kanpai Tsuki a perfect sake to drink warm. The drinking of warm sake spread from the aristocracy to the common people during the middle part of the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867), when the drinking of sake itself became popular with the masses. Enjoyable either warm or chilled to complement the season, traditional Japanese sake can be savoured across a wide range of temperatures.Futsu-shu, which is barely polished, is best thought of as table sake. It accounts for the bulk of sake sold in Japan, and though you'll find some paint stripper, there are many excellent everyday drinkers if you look hard enough. Next you have ginjo, at 60% polishing, and daiginjo, at 50%, both of which can be junmai or not. Here you get more delicacy, with fruit flavours, a smooth mouthfeel and clean aftertaste. Junmai versions ramp up the umami and acidity. How to drink sake The Tedorigawa brewery makes a wide range of excellent sake from classy Ika na Onna to sweet and clean Kinka and mellow Yamahai Junmai Daiginjo. You can enjoy all of them at various temperatures. But Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai was probably specifically made to drink warm.

When you try Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai chilled, you taste its high acidity straight away. It has a nice creamy texture and is quite a mouthful feel with a long finish with a vanilla aftertaste. You can notice prunes and apple crumble flavours and the taste in general quite deep.

Though sake is a drink steeped in ancient Japanese tradition and history, it’s a category that’s not always easily understood outside of Japan. Fortunately, quality, craftsmanship and taste are universal – and Akashi-Tai places all of these at the forefront of its production to create elegant, balanced but characterful sakes. Keeping tradition alive