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.

Film review: Sideways (2004) by Alexander Payne, *****

Synopsis

Comedy drama which follows Miles (Paul Giamatti), an unsuccessful novelist, and Jack (Thomas Haden Church), an equally unsuccessful actor who is about to get married. They decide to take a trip to California in an attempt to sow their wild oats. 

There they explore the nature of their failures and question their relationships. Jack has an affair with Stephanie (Sandra Oh)  and wonders whether he should call off the marriage. Miles, recently divorced himself, questions whether or not he made the right decision while Maya (Virginia Madsen) plays a few games with him.


Review

An excellent movie that is only marginally about wine. Yes we go through California's wine country and learn a lot about many different kinds of wine, and especially Pinot Noir.

But the movie by Alexander Payne is more about what we can do with ourselves and our lives with the hand we are dealt at birth and by chance. I identify very much with Miles, a not-so-good-looking but deep thinking fellow who is deeply passionate about what he loves, be it his lost ex-wife or Pinot Noir. But it is the Jacks of the world who have more fun: not so deep, not so careful, just happy go lucky types. 

The last scene of the movie leaves a door open to hope however: while Jack sinks unenthusiastically into his boring marriage, Miles finds the true love of his life.

See my other reviews of films about wine on my blog.

Film review: Mondovino (2004) by Jonathan Nossiter, **

Synopsis

Filmmaker Jonathan Nossiter, who loves wine, looks at the international wine business. He offers his personal view of how business concerns and the homogenisation of tastes around the world are changing the way wine is being made. 

Review

The movie is good in that it points the finger to a phenomenon that is pervasive in the world of wine, as it is in every aspect of our life: globalization. The director's thesis, which he does not spell out but appears clearly, is that this is a bad thing. I, on the contrary, think it is a good development for wine, mainly because it allows for greater choice.

Far from homogenizing the taste of the world's wines, globalization is making any wine, in any style, available everywhere in the world, and this gives each of us a chance to choose what we like, how much we want to spend.

He implicitly accuses Robert Parker (whom he interviews) to be in cahoot with American business, while in fact parker has been very beneficial to French wines and Bordeaux in particular. He received countless awards from France, including from the president of the Republic.

Nossiter is tricky as he often hides his camera and films without the subject being aware. That is not correct in my view, even for a documentarist.

He is also political, but out of context. He underlines how a mayor of a French town who rejected American money to invest in the local vineyards was a communist (good) while Italian nobles who accept to work with the same Americans has grandparents who supported fascism (bad). I find some of these people who live in their past rather disagreeable, but that says nothing about their wines. How totally irrelevant.

Finally, he never misses a chance to film any dog that happens to be in front of his camera. For example when he interviews Parker he goes at great length to emphasize how his dogs fart a log, and that is really too much. 

Today, no matter what Nossiter says, we have more diversified and better quality wines around the world than ever before.

Here is another good review of this film I agree with by Decanter.