Intro to Sake
Sake for Dummies: A beginner’s guide to becoming a sake snob
What does the national beverage of Japan and the Washington State Riesling chilling in your wine cooler have in common? More than you might think. Both the sake and wine worlds share ancient origins that have evolved with deep cultural and regional roots intact. Both are crafted through fermentation, resulting in a captivating beverage with exciting varieties, delicate flavors, and rich in subtlety and nuance. And while it is now socially acceptable to sip fine sake from an elegant wine glass or ask a Sake sommelier for sake food pairing suggestions, you will never mistake a sip of French Chardonnay for Japanese Junmai-shu sake.
Sake 101: The Basics
How do you pronounce “Sake”?
If you don't want to be “that” person who pronounces Tempranillo as if it rhymes with the color yellow, sake is pronounced ‘Saw-KAY’. If you pronounce it ‘Saw-KEY”, you run the very real risk of being mistaken for a Japanese hillbilly.
Is Sake a Wine?
Sake is technically not wine, nor is it a beer or a spirit. Rather, Sake lives in its own world, residing somewhere between beer and wine; fermented from grain like beer, with physical and flavor qualities more akin to wine. It is commonly thought of as a “rice wine” because it shares so many similarities to wine, especially white wine. The best way to think of sake is that it is simply sake.
What is Sake made from?
The shopping list to make a beautiful wine is rather short: grapes and yeast. Fundamentally, Japanese sake requires only a few more ingredients: rice, water, yeast, and mold (yes, mold).
What does Sake look like?
Sake, because of how it is filtered, commonly appears clear, similar to vodka or gin. Sake, however, can also appear amber or straw-colored, or even cloudy, resembling the appearance of milk (it doesn’t taste like it, trust me!) Like wine, as sake ages, it can also change color, commonly going from clear to golden over time. Unlike wine, sake quality usually degrades with age and is recommended to be drunk within a year's time after production.
What does sake smell like?
It can be a bit mind-blowing when you first smell sake. How can something made from fermented rice have aromas of fruit, melon, floral, or citrus? More understandable notes of spice (clove, cinnamon, fenugreek), grass, earth, nuts, and tea are also common. Much of sake’s essence comes primarily from the fermentation process rather than the rice itself. Much of wine's primary qualities come from the fruit itself, with secondary qualities coming from the fermentation and aging processes.
What does sake taste like?
Surprisingly, like wine, sake can have a diverse flavor profile: Sweet to Dry (non-sweet), sour, and bitter. Unlike wine, sake can have savory umami flavors (I hope that's a word...it's not!) like cereal, caramel, or mushroom. Though flavors can be subtle, they are far from bland!
Common Flavors and Aromas
Mouthfeel
Depending on a sake’s levels of sugars, acids, and amino acids, the mouthfeel can range from a complex, rich, and full-bodied sake to one that is light, delicate, and clean. Sake does not contain tannins like wine but can still possess some astringency. And like wine, this astringency can mellow with age. Sake is generally lower in acid than most wines but makes up for this with higher alcohol levels (around 14-16%).
How is Sake Served?
Put away your Zalto wine glasses you paid 60 bucks for, sake is served traditionally in small earthen cups. While hard-up college students may resort to doing shots of sake, the civilized sake world knows it is to be sipped, not slugged. Sake can be served hot, cold, or simply at room temperature. The wine world’s influence, however, has led sake professionals to begin serving sake chilled and in a wine glass.
How to Taste Sake
The good news is, if you have the basics down for tasting wine, then you’re well on your way to properly tasting and appreciating the complex flavors and subtleties of sake. (see Learn How to Taste Wine and Develop Your Palate).
Look: Visually inspect color/hue: colorless, pale yellow, gold, amber, dark amber? Clarity: clear, dull, cloudy? The major factors in color variation are usually related to the age of the sake and the filtration method used.
Smell: Identify aromas and their intensities: fruit, grass, alcohol, earth, nuts? When served in a wine glass, swirl away, but when served in the traditional Ochoko cups, beware of swirling, for you may be wearing more sake than tasting.
Taste: Sweet/medium/dry? Body rich and heavy or light and clean? Finish long and lingering or brief? Acid, umami, bitterness present? Unlike wine, the taste of sake is expected to vanish quickly, and a long finish is considered undesirable.
Conclude: Develop a profile for the sake in your mind and try to determine the characteristics and notes you desire most. Like wine, the crowd-pleasers of sake attract the newbies, but with experience, a mature palate can be nurtured and developed to appreciate the finer qualities of sake.
How is Sake made?
Sake Ingredients
Rice: Just as there are different grape varieties to make wine from, sake producers have thousands of unique rice varieties to choose from to make their sake. But keep in mind, not all rice is worthy of sake production!
Water: Arguably as important as rice, water plays a vital role in brewing quality sake.
Mold: Known as Koji, this mold, when applied to steamed rice, releases enzymes that break down grain starches into fermentable sugars.
Yeast: The holy grail of alcohol production, yeast is needed to convert sugar into alcohol.
Making Sake in 5 (not so easy) steps
Step 1: Milling the Rice
Before anything can be done, the rice must first be milled and ‘polished.’ Highly polished rice grains are essential for making premium, high-quality sake. Why? Because it removes impurities found on the outside of the grain (fats, proteins, and residual minerals). Ultimately, these impurities can impart unwanted aromas and unpleasant flavors into the sake, similar to how unwanted ingredients or damaged fruit can taint the wine. The polishing process takes the initial almond-shaped rice grain and mills it smaller and smaller until the desired level of milling is achieved. The milling process can remove as little as 30 percent of the rice grain's exterior to greater than 70 percent. The more the rice is polished, the more it takes the shape and appearance of a pearl. And from these pearls, the finest and most expensive sake is made.
Note: Not all sake rice is polished the same. Highly polished grains are ultimately smaller and used almost exclusively for making premium sake.
Step 2: Steaming the Rice
Once the rice has been polished into a pearl-like appearance, the rice is washed to clean and hydrate the grain before being steamed. It is important to note that the rice is steamed but not actually cooked like normal food rice. Why? Steaming the rice makes it less sticky and presumably easier to work with.
Step 3: Inoculating the Rice
After the steaming process, a portion of the rice is inoculated with a mold called Koji, an enzyme-producing mold. These enzymes break down the rice carbohydrates into sugar, which will later be fermented into alcohol by yeast. The rice inoculated with koji will become known as “Koji Rice.”
Fun Fact about Koji:
Revolting as it may sound, Koji mold is completely safe to ingest. In fact, the fungus is a vital ingredient for making miso soup and soy sauce!
Step 4: The Fermentation
Yeast is added to a portion of the koji rice to make a fermentation starter. Over the following weeks, koji rice is continually added to the original starter to continue the fermentation process. The resulting ingredients begin to take on the appearance of rice crispy cereal with steamed milk, better known as, the mash. Over the next 4-5 weeks, the mash will slowly ferment and begin its transformation from rice pudding to sake!
Fun Fact: Both Koji (breaking down remaining carbs) and yeast (breaking down the sugars from these carbs) work side by side in the fermenter. This double fermentation makes sake unique from other winemaking and brewing practices.
Step 5: Pressing, Racking, Filtering, Pasteurizing, and Bottling
Pressing:
Once the fermentation is complete, the mash is pressed to extract the liquid, leaving the solids, almost like rice cakes, behind.
Racking:
Like wine in barrels, sediment and other particles will settle to the bottom of the tank. Racking removes the liquid from the tank while leaving the solids behind.
Filtering:
Sometimes, depending on the style, brewers will filter the sake so that it appears clear and free of any particulates. (Think filtered and unfiltered wine) However, not all sake is filtered. Sometimes brewers will allow the sake to retain its turbidity, which adds a fuller, more round mouthfeel to the sake.
Pasteurizing and Bottling:
Again, depending on style, sake will sometimes be pasteurized by heating the beverage to 160F before bottling and sometimes after bottling. Brewers do this to kill any remaining bacteria or yeast cells that might spoil the sake.
A Brief History of Sake
Ancient Chinese history books have noted the Japanese love for sake since the 3rd and 4th centuries. The oldest rice alcohol ever found (not sake, but still related) was discovered in a bronze jar in China. The jar’s corrosion caused the container to hermetically seal, keeping the wine inside from evaporating for 9,000 years! This, of course, makes the 75-year-old bottle of Port you’ve been saving seem like a child.
In modern times, sake can now be found across the globe, but the highest quality and most prized is exclusively produced in Japan. Here sake holds a deep connection with Japan’s cultural, historical, and religious identity. Shinto rituals, weddings, and most social events, including funerals, have sake at their core. Initially, only the drink of Japanese nobility, but with time, it became the national drink for commoners and royalty alike.
For goodness sake...what are you waiting for?
Sure, sake isn’t going to taste like your typical Washington State Riesling or Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa, but that's ok! Next time you find yourself at the local Sushi bar or neighborhood liquor store, grab a bottle of sake and treat your pallet to a new and exciting experience.
