One thing that caught my eye was the two daiginjō awards, “Daiginjō A” and “Daiginjō B”. What was that all about?
The US Sake Appraisal seems to think this is an issue as well, as their daiginjō category is divided into two:
- Daiginjō A: milled to 40% or less
- Daiginjō B: milled to 50% or less
Only the B requirement matches up with Japanese law, so it’s interesting to see a competition drawing another line inside the legal definition. The entry form states that the legal classification on the label is used to determine the category the sake is entered in, so presumably if a brewery calls their sake a ginjō when it meets the requirements for a daiginjō, it is judged as a ginjō.
The competition has been held since 2001, with the aims of recognising great sake and also popularising it in the US. It also honours late researcher and brewer Takao Nihei, who was based in Hawaii and a passionate proponent of sake there. There are eight judges from Japan and three from the US, who blind taste all entries in a first round and then the top 50% in a second round. The entries are tasted in order of glucose concentration to prevent the taste of one sake from overwhelming another. The 2018 competition received entries from 194 breweries across 41 prefectures, with 478 entries competing across four categories: Daiginjō A, Daiginjō B, Ginjō and Junmai (which is interestingly defined as “polishing ratio 55% or more”, with junnmai daiginjō to be entered in the daiginjō division and junmai ginjō to be entered in the ginjō division).
There were 134 gold awards and 126 silver, with the winners of each division as follows:
Daiginjō A
- Grand Prix: Chotokusen daiginjō Moriko, Yamagata Honten (Yamaguchi)
- Second Grand Prix: Azuma no Fumoto daiginjō , Azuma no Fumoto Shuzō (Yamagata)
- Second Grand Prix: Hamachidori daiginjō , Hamachidori (Iwate)
Daiginjō B
- Grand Prix: Koshi no Kanbai Muku, Ishimoto Shuzō (Niigata)
- Second Grand Prix: Shichida junmai daiginjō, Tenzan Shuzō (Saga)
- Second Grand Prix: Tatenokawa junmai daiginjō Phoenix, Tatenokawa Shuzō (Yamagata)
Ginjō
- Grand Prix: Momokawa Sugidama junmai ginjō, Momokawa (Aomori)
- Second Grand Prix: Sanran ginjō, Tonoike Shuzōten (Tochigi)
- Second Grand Prix: Koshi no Kanbai Bessen, Ishimoto Shuzō (Niigata)
Junmai
- Grand Prix: Momokawa junmaishu, Momokawa (Aomori)
- Second Grand Prix: Zaku Ho no Tomo, Shimizu Seizaburo Shōten (Mie)
- Oyama tokubetsu junmaishu, Kato Kahachiro Shuzō (Yamagata)
Links
- Original article (Japanese, Shokuhin Sangyo Shinbunsha News Web, 15 June 2018)
- US National Sake Appraisal (English)
- US National Sake Appraisal Entry Form (English)
- Yamagata Honten (Japanese)
- Azuma no Fumoto (Japanese)
- Hamachidori (Japanese) [You may have to scroll down past what looks like a malfunctioning stylesheet]
- Ishimoto Shuzō, makers of Koshi no Kanbai (Japanese)
- Ishimoto Shuzō, makers of Koshi no Kanbai (English)
- Tenzan Shuzō (Japanese)
- Tenzan Shuzō (English)
- Tatenokawa Shuzō (Japanese)
- Momokawa (Japanese/English)
- Tonoike Shuzōten, makers of Sanran (Japanese)
- Tonoike Shuzōten, makers of Sanran (English)
- Shimizu Seizaburo Shoten, makers of Zaku (Japanese)
- Shimizu Seizaburo Shoten, makers of Zaku (English)
- Kato Kahachiro (Japanese)