Sake and cheese masterclass at the London Wine Fair

Masterclass on pairing of cheese and sake by Natsuki Kikuy, a well-known senior sake researcher with WSET credentials.

Sake is, of course, the national drink in Japan, we all know that. What many, surprisingly, still don't know is that is is a fermented drink, and not a distilled one. 

Four basic elements go into sake: rice, water, koji and yeast.

 There are about 100 types of sake rice in Japan and several are grown specifically with sake brewing in mind. Water in Japan is also special, it has the least minerals of most other waters in the world. Koji is a mould, also used as condiment with miso etc Finally,  koji yeast is used to break up starch into sugar.

As for sake categories, to put it in simple terms, the popular Junmai means the sake has 50+%plus polish, ie more than half of the rice grain is polished away to leave only the inner core for sake.

For honjozo they add alcohol and achieve a staggering 70% polish rate.

Cheese and sake go well together because they share : fermentation, umami notes and, for both, aging matters.

Following are my tasting notes.

Kisaki sprasu pink sake

Junmai daiginjio 

Sparkling sake, champagne method 

50%pol ratio 

11%abv

Score 89

La tur cheese from Piedmont 

Soft blend cow sheep goat 

Koi Junmai Daiginjio 

17%abv 

Score 92

Secret polishing ratio 

Very smooth long 

Brilliant savarin creamy cheese from burgundy 

Perfect pair by concordance 

Tatsuriki Sakura 

Junmai 65% polish ratio 

15%abv 

Used cherry blossom flower that contains yeast 

Score 89

Dorstone goat cheese from England 

Light fluffy texture 

Niida Shinzenshu 

Kimoto Junmai Genshu

From fukushima 

Polish ratio 80% 16%abv

fruity 

Score 90

Cheese Salers from Auvergne 

Un pasteurized cow milk 

Chunky cheese concordance with thick sake 

Asahizakura ginjio koshu (aged) 1996

Exception as it needs aging while usually sake should not 

Polish ratio 60%

Abv 17%

Color by maillard reaction like for onions,slight toasted bitter nites

Score 88

4yo gouda cheese from Netherlands 

Smooth paste and sake by concordance 

Ebisu Fuku Ume 

Not technically sake 

Made with apricots 

Abv 12%

Aged in brandy casks for 20 years 

Paired by concordance with 

Blue cheese goat gorgonzola from Italy 

Sake pairing master class with Isa Bal MW

Isa Bal is a friendly Turkish expert of sake.  Here is some points from my notes of his masterclass.

Sake imports increases 20pc in last 5 years in the UK, no longer esoteric, western consumers know more. 

Three old misconception gone: 

1. No longer drink only with Japanese food, 

2. people understand it is not distilled but fermented and 

3. it is not necessary to drink it warm. Now easier to sell sake in Europe.

Junmai-shu (rice only; no adding of distilled alcohol)
Honjozo-shu (little distilled alcohol is added)
Ginjo-shu (highly polished rice, with or without alcohol added)
Daiginjo-shu (even more highly polished rice, with/without added alcohol)
Koshu (aged sake, only a small % of production)

COMPONENTS

rice, different kinds, main by far is the Yamada Nishiki

water, main component to characterize "terroir"

kojo (fungus transform rice's starch in fermentable sugar)

yeast (ferments sugar into alcohol, carefully selected, never indigenous)


PROCESS

Polishing: want to keep only core of rice. 70% polish to remove fat and proteins means only 30% of rice grain is left to ferment.

Parallel fermentation, yeast and Kojo work simultaneously very complex to master by brewery

Serving temperature can be anything between 5 to 55 degrees Celsius.

Depend on personal taste but also season. Best sake should not be heated too much or lose aroma.

Traditionally served in square wooden boxes or porcelain cups but depends on style of location, glass ok in modern setting. Not so fussy like in wine about shape and size of vessel.

Alcohol content significant, about 15pc but not more than a strong wine.

Can make sake anywhere and call it sake but not "Nihon shu" which is literally "Japanese sake".

Can keep open bottle for a week or more and oxidation is very slow.

TASTING

Today's tasting included 10 sakes, 9 newly bottled and 1 aged from 1992. After initial tasting we matched with beef meat balls in tomato sauce, Parmigiano, artichoke in olive oil and goose liver paté.

Meat balls difficult match.

Artichoke easiest, best pair with all sakes good match also in relative terms because virtually no wine will do, best with fruitier fresher sakes from north of Japan

Parmigiano and goose liver paté more flexible and can be matched with different sakes, especially the more full bodied ones from the south

about 50 Sommeliers at tasting, we came up with wildly different opinions on paring, because it's new and different for most of us but lots of fun trying! need to be adventurous and brave!

A lady who works to promote sake in Europe, I think at Japanese chamber of commerce, said that sake is like Japanese people : easygoing, don't like fighting (sic) prefer to go smoothly together. Sake is therefore a forgiving generous drink that will adapt to lots of different kinds of food.

She also said that sake is like the Japanese who adopt the Buddhist view to enjoy the present without thinking too much about the future so sake is made to drink soon, no aging. I asked why we tasted today an aged sake (vintage 1992) which in my opinion was the best of the 10 we tasted, complex sweet but toasted, ok with torta della nonna, apple pie, even grilled meat with caramelized sauce like pork chops. She said that one can age some sakes and the result can appeal to Europe taste because Europeans are used to aging wine, tertiary flavors.

Sake can last longer when you open bottle, oxidation slower, she said she keeps open bottle in fridge for over a week (which means she must be a lonely drinker in the evening...)

Water essential, Japan gets lots of rain, no problem for now, yet even now use deep sea water with low salinity.

Terroir not as important as in wine, most important the hand that makes it. Can transport rice and yeast across the country. Water only local ingredient. not so important good year and bad year as in wine vintages because the ingredients do not change appreciably from one year to the next.

North Japan sake is usually more crisp and dry, in the south rich and sometimes a bit sweet, both go with local food.

At the end of the tasting a reporter for a Japanese radio interviewed me and asked if I thought it might be possible to make good sake in Europe. Some are trying, including in the UK. I said I did not know if it would be as good but it would probably be different unless the European brewers import all ingredients from Japan, like the Japanese do when they make whisky, with excellent results. Water however would be more difficult to import so the end product will be different.

Sake master class by Natsuki Kikuya

Sake master class. Let's go. "journey in the sake glass" by Natsuki Kikuya, director of sake museum in London. Great event learned a lot.


In Japan sake is a declining industry, not considered cool by young people. In Europe opposite, even non Japanese restaurants now propose it.


Interesting that sake producers don't grow own rice. Can buy from anywhere in Japan.

 
No "terroir" but different climates change taste of sake from prefecture to another.

Tasting notes:


1. Azure Ginjo. Yamanadishi, 15%. Green apple. Add distilled alcohol for sharp finish.  Good with raw fish. Score 86.


2. Takashimizu junmai daiginjo. From Akita prefecture. Smooth, structure. Good with salmon. Score 90.


3. Urakasumi Junmai. From miyagi prefecture. Fruit almond slightly bitter . Smoother, bananas milkshake. Score 88.


4. Shirakabegura kimoto jumai. From Hyogo prefecture. Beef country. Bananas figs. Richer nose.fuller palate. Score 94.


5. Shichida junmai ginjo. Saga prefecture on Kyushu. Sweet food lots of soy sauces. Fresh and smooth, balanced. Long. Score 96.


6. Daruma masamune. 5yo. 17%. Exception, sake usually doesn't age. From Gifu prefecture, only landlocked prefecture in Japan. River fish. Preserved foods. Sweet. Amber color! Smooth structure. A bit oxidized, reminds of Sherry. For after meal or fatty food. Score 95. 

Sake Master Class, Londra

I confess that I signed up for the Sake Master Class organized by the Italian Sommelier Association in London with a mixture of curiosity and skepticism. Like most of my fellow sommeliers in attendance, I had drank sake on numerous occasions. But this had happened exclusively in Japanese restaurants, satisfyingly combining it with sushi or tempura, but without a systematic criterion. As if the pairing parameters - concordance and contrast - that we have learned to apply when we marry a wine with a Western dish do not apply to sake. Sake sweet or dry, aromatic or fruity, cooler or softer, served at what temperature? We lacked the tools to make the best decisions.

With colleagues during the master class

Upon our arrival we were greeted by Andrea, Federica and Armando, the organizers of the AIS Club in London, as well as by a hundred bottles of sake perfectly aligned in progressive order of service behind the screen set up for the projection of Jonathan Beagle, a friendly Englishman with long Japanese experience and sake expert. All under the vigilant coordination of Akimitsu Takata, head of Japan@UK, a company that aims to promote the products of the rising sun in the United Kingdom.

Jonathan's lively presentation was interspersed with samples of sake, which were gradually poured into our glasses. Tasting is very different from tasting wine. Firstly, there is no visual analysis: sake is transparent. If it isn't, it means that time has darkened it slightly during refinement in a bottle that may not have been perfectly preserved. But sake never has to wait, it is designed to be drunk as soon as it is bottled, a few months after production. In fact, the date indicated on the bottles is that of bottling and not of the harvest.

The olfactory analysis is more simplified than the cosmology of scents that we can receive from a complex glass of wine. Finally, the olfactory-gustatory analysis, the only one truly relevant for sake. Here the parameters at play are more numerous, and the AIS categorization on the balance between soft sensations (sweetness, pseudo-alcoholicity and softness) and hard sensations (only acidity and flavor, there are no tannins) can be applied, with some adaptations. The range of flavors and aromas that emerges upon careful tasting is surprising, even if not as diversified as that of wine. Less complex than wine from an organoleptic point of view, sake however has a greater range of temperatures to be enjoyed, which can vary from 5 degrees centigrade up to 60!

It should be noted that the result of a good sake is mainly the work of the producer and less of mother nature. In fact, there are different types of rice (the "vine varieties" of sake) and terroir, but in both cases sake producers cannot have the panoply of tools available to the winemaker and oenologist. The fundamental elements here are koji, a mold used to produce sugar from rice starches, and then yeasts for transforming sugar into alcohol. The manufacturer's mastery is asserted on these.

Like wine, sake has a thousand-year history behind it and a bright future ahead, and for both their respective producers tend to favor quality over quantity. Unknown in the West until recently, today it is discovered by sommeliers all over the world for its great flexibility in pairing with international cuisine. During the London event we were even amazed by the happy pairing of sake with the bête noire of wine: the artichoke!

Federica e Andrea della UKSA

Grazie ad Armando Pereira per le fotografie.