Sake Diary

Chotoko – Heavenly Brew – Honjozo

Unripe bananas, with a heat on the finish that reminds me of Szechuan pepper. Grippy, not as a smooth as the best sakes can be.

Nechi Otokoyama – Ginjo

Smells like double cream. Sweet, too: watermelon. Quite a fine finish, almost winey. A surprisingly good food sake.

Tamagawa Kinsho – Daiginjo

Lime, flowers and pear – very fragrant, and a very smooth palate. Clearly the finest of this batch of sakes, but doesn’t stand up well to food.

Kamaizumi Shusen – 3 Dots – Junmai

Earthy and mushroomy – the flavours are very savoury, but there is a surprising underlying sweetness. Not quite so good a finish, but definitely interesting.

Dewa Oka – Junmai Ginjo

The blurb says cherry blossom, but that seems remote to us; there is a much more clearly defined note of cucumber (N1 adds bitter melon) and a ginger finish. Structurally relatively light.