Sake News from Japan / Sake Muse
Sake in the air: JAL First Class sake for March
The Mainichi newspaper reports on more sake taking to the air - this time the Izumo-Fuji brewery's Ama no Murakumo (Clouds Obscuring the Heavens) being served on internal JAL flights. The junmai daiginjō is the selected sake for March in first class. It's made with...
Niigata University founds Sakeology Centre
The Niigata Nippo More news site reports on the founding of the Sakeology Centre, Niigata University (SCNU). The university held a press conference in the Chuo (central) ward of Niigata City on 9 March to announce that the new centre will open in April 2018, and serve...
Tasting: Nigori and chocolate 2
We're back for more nigori and chocolate! We enjoyed the first attempt to ask "does nigori go with chocolate?" so much (mainly by countering with "which form of chocolate?") that we wrote up a short list of what other forms we'd like to try and after a brief trip to...
Brewery visit: Tonoike/Sanran, Mashiko (Part 2)
If you missed Part 1 of the Tonoike/Sanran brewery visit, click here to read it. The Tonoike brewery - known for its Sanran sake and Mashiko no Honō shōchū - isn’t a tiny brewery, but they deliberately keep things small-scale. Our first stop was the rice washing...
Brewery Visit: Tonoike/Sanran, Mashiko 17 November 2017
NOTE: As John Gauntner has pointed out (Sakagura tourism? Not so fast!) breweries are food producers observing stringent hygiene requirements. Don’t assume you can drop in unless they have a shop, bar, museum or other public space. Always ask in advance if you can...
Brussels calling: new sake category in the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles
Back to the Mainichi Newspaper again, this time for an announcement that another wine competition is opening a sake division. Held in a different country every year, the Concours Mondial de Bruxelles (CMB) was started in 1994, and the 2016 competition had over 320...
Something fishy: a sake just for mackerel
The Mainichi Newspaper covers a very specialised sake - one just for mackerel. Get ready for the puns. The first one is the date the sake was released, 8 March. So what, you say. If you take some liberties with the readings for the numbers 3 and 8 in Japanese (which...
Sparkling sake in a wine glass
I've covered the Best Sake in a Wine Glass competition before (The best sake for your wine glass in 2018) but this article in the Fukushima Minyu newspaper has a few more details, as well as some attention for the winner from its own prefecture. The Fukui Prefecture...
What a Japanese sake evaluation looks like
Today's piece is short, but interesting - the Oita Broadcasting System TV station covers the Kumamoto Sake and Shōchū Makers Association Association kikizake (tasting) for shinzake (newly brewed sake). Click here to see the original article which includes video...
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The translations/summaries of Japanese language news articles or other resources, personal commentary and other content provided on this site or through its associated newsletter are part of a personal project to increase the amount of information about Japanese sake and related fields available in English.
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