Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse

The International Wine Challenge sake division results have just been released - and there are a few familiar faces, a few surprises and a new category! The new category (which has actually been around since last year) is Aged Sake, which is confusing when listed...

As you'll have seen in this newsletter and many other places last year, the extreme summer heat in Japan made a lot of rice harder and less soluble than usual. Instagram is currently full of breweries and farmers planting out rice seedlings, and you have to wonder how...

The legendary five villages of Nada - now part of Kobe city - are a great place to visit, seen the sheer density of sake breweries. There is also plenty of tourist information... but if you want to get much more out of visiting, you might consider a tour.  But not...

Annual Japan Sake Awards (official title), zenkoku shinshu kanpyōkai, whatever you call it, the results are out! Currently held jointly by the Japan Sake and Shōchū Makers Association (JSS) and the National Research Institute of Brewing (NRIB), the contest has been...

Fast-freezing technology company Technician International is working with the food division of Japanese conglomerate Itochu Corporation to offer deep-frozen foods - and sake too. The TOMIN ("hibernation") freezing system uses ethanol cooled down to -30°C (-22°F),...

A Nagoya-based company is pursuing a very simple pairing concept by opening a tamago-kake gohan (rice topped with an egg) restaurant with menus selected by a sake expert, alongside a sake shop specialising in junmai nama.  The minimalist menu at Shisei (written in old...

While attention is still focused to some degree (and rightly so) on the devastation of the Noto Peninsula and its sake breweries, other areas are also in need of support - and finding it both locally and from new sources within the industry.  The village of Tōhō on...

Takara, one of Japan's (and therefore the world's) largest sake makers, has issued a voluntary recall for almost 100,000 bottles of its sparkling sake Mio Premium Rosé. The limited edition product went on sale in January in 300 ml and 750 ml bottles, and was stocked...

You may be familiar with the name Yanmar - often glimpsed on tractors and other agricultural machinery. But I wasn't expecting the name to turn up on a press release about a new variety of sake rice... developed in Italy to be grown in Italy. Yanmar R&D Europe,...