Sake is often called rice wine, but is it actually wine?!? You may be surprised to find the answer! And for this minisode, we are joined by our daughter Marianna who you can find on Instagram at munch.with.mar! They have been making sake in Japan in the same way for more than 500 years, and there are 12 steps to making it, so, whether it is wine, beer, spirits, or its own thing, it is a very involved process! You may also be surprised to find that they make wines from grapes in Japan, and there is a wine grape unique to Japan called Koshou that we are dying to try! Join us for this taste spoon of our podcast, and speaking of tasting, we give a little tasting of a sake just for good measure.
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Show Notes
Minisode #14: Is Sake Wine?
Hi everyone, and welcome to this special mini-episode of The Wine Pair Podcast! I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair.
If you are new to The Wine Pair Podcast, these minisodes are just shorter versions of the regular podcast that we put on weeks where we might be traveling or handling other life stuff, and instead of tasting and reviewing two to three wines under $20 that are easy to find, which is what we usually do in our longer episodes, in the minisodes, we focus more on things like wine etiquette, wine education, and wine tips. And, we try to make it fun and understandable to regular, everyday people like us! And our podcast is recommended by Decanter magazine who call us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining.
So, we are soon going to the land of the rising sun for a total adventure, Carmela. We are, for the first time in our lives, going to Japan, and this is the first time for you to even go to Asia, right Carmela? We are super excited, mostly because our daughter is going with us, but also because we consider ourselves to be kind of low-key foodies, and Japan is supposed to be a mecca for great food.
Of course, for us, when it comes to food, we think about wine, and in preparing for a trip to any foreign country, we always like to find out about the local wines, and so we immediately thought about doing an episode on Sake, because Sake is often called rice wine. But is it really wine?
Well, more on that in a second, but you may be surprised to find out that they do make wine from grapes in Japan.
I didn’t know this either, but there are over 200 wineries in Japan, and they have been making wine there in the European style for about 150 years, and they focus mostly on French varietals like Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah. And, there is even a unique Japanese varietal called Koshu which is pink skinned and resistant to humidity and is usually made into a white wine that some have said is similar to Sauvignon Blanc. And, by the way, Japan is a country that drinks a lot of wine, and Japan likes very high quality wine.
But back to Sake. What is Sake exactly? And we actually have a Sake right here that we are going to drink by the way.
Well, technically, Sake is not beer or wine or a spirit. It is, in fact, its own thing because it is made in a unique way. It is an alcoholic beverage made from fermented rice. And it is usually uncarbonated, pale in color, a bit sweet, and relatively high in alcohol.
The classic sake is made from only a few ingredients: water, rice, “koji” — or rice mold — and yeast. And the process to make it, which has been the same for about 500 years, has 12 steps. Now, I am not going to go into any exhaustive detail on how it is made, or on the different types or styles of Sake, but here are some basics:
They take brown rice and the polish it, wash it, soak it, and steam it. Then, they sprinkle the koji spores on it to create the actual koji. Once the koji is made, they create a yeast starter from koji, water, yeast and some of the steamed rice, which they make into a mash and then ferment it for 2-4 weeks. Then they press the liquid out of the rice mixture, filter it, pasteurize it, and then age it for 3-6 months before bottling, and when they bottle it, they sometimes add water to lower the alcohol volume before sealing the bottles.
So, it is made very differently from wine and liquor, and may be most similar to beer in some ways.
There are many types of Sake including Junmai which is not very sweet and is paired with red meat, Ginjo which is light and floral, is generally served chilled and goes well with lighter foods, and there is a sparkling Sake, most often created like Prosecco where carbonation is infused into the beverage in a pressurized tank.
Sake can be served at different temperatures - although you often hear about hot Sake - but the lighter Sakes like Ginjo are usually served coles, and the Junmai Sake usually served at room temperature or warmed.
So, let’s try this Sake and see what we think:
Color: Completely clear, but thick looking like a distilled liquor
Smell: Apples, sweet citrus, light, honey, pear, white wine almost
Taste: Rubbing alcohol, vodka and wine mix, vodka left on ice for too long, no tannins
I think that is enough for now, but I can tell you, I am super excited to try some Sake in Japan, and just see what they consider to be classic in their culture!
If you want to see the sources for our content today and get the links to learn more, come to our website, look for this minisode, and open up the show notes.
Articles and Links
- https://cluboenologique.com/review/best-japanese-wine/#:~:text=Seven%20award%2Dwinning%20Japanese%20wines%20to%20discover&text=Japan%20may%20not%20be%20the,as%20the%208th%20century..
- https://www.takarasake.com/blog/quick-facts-on-sake/#:~:text=Though%20sake%20is%20often%20referred,involves%20a%20unique%20production%20method.
- https://www.delish.com/kitchen-tools/kitchen-secrets/a40187022/what-is-sake/
You can also check out our other minisodes to learn more which you can find on our website or your favorite podcast service. You can follow us on Instagram at thewinepairpodcast or you can visit our website thewinepairpodcast.com and in any of those places you can reach out to us directly, and you can send us an email at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com. We also will have our show notes on our website, and we will include links to articles on this topic as well. And, on our website you can also sign up for our fun newsletter!
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