Le Samourai Restaurant, Brussels Belgium

posting to Sake World with work being exceptionally crazy so I wanted to make sure to find and write about a memorable sake experience this trip.  My hotel concierge came up with an excellent location and I think as a result he’s going to be a honorary member of the Sake World Hall of Fame when I create it (email me to pre-order your T-Shirts).

ICANN is the organization that administers the Internet and as my company’s representative I have the good fortune to travel to some interesting places and spend time with customers and other industry types.  The ICANN organization itself has to cover a lot of ground so as a result much of the work is done by people in the industry who volunteer on working groups.  These groups meet via conference weekly throughout the year, working on their respective projects.  The ICANN meetings are a culmination of these working groups where after months of preparation, decisions are made (or not) and everyone gets to burn the candle on both ends and the middle for a week.

The spring ICANN meeting was in Nairobi and unfortunately my company took the bomb threats seriously and nixed my attendance.  I was disappointed as I’ve avoided bombs so far and couldn’t really see the problem but I guess insurance rates could have been an issue.  Last fall’s meeting was in Seoul which is not exactly a sake mecca and I never really got anything worth writing about.  It was mandatory that this trip be different.

I had dinner plans with Michele Neylon and Adam Eisner, two close friends and customers who weren’t big on fish so I needed to find a place that would cater to the non-sushi crowd.  Our Most Excellent Concierge recommended Le Samourai, high-end but not absurdly priced (added benefit I now know how to spell Samurai in French).  He agreed to book a table for me when Samourai opened and I went to meet my friends at Le Grand Place in the heart of Brussels.

Le Grand Place is truly one of the most impressive town plazas I’ve ever experienced.  It measures 360 by 223 feet and is surrounded by massive gothic buildings that house their city hall, several enormous guild halls,

Le Grand Place, Brussels Belgium

and the Bread House.  The origins of Le Grand Place date back to the end of the 11th century when an open air marketplace was set up there.  The market was well situated along the Steenweg (Dutch: Causeway), an important commercial road which connected the prosperous regions of the Rhineland and the County of Flanders.  The Brussels City Hall was built on the south side of the square in stages between 1401 and 1455, and made the Grand Place the seat of municipal power. It towers 96 metres (315 ft) high, and is capped by a 3 metre (12 ft) statue of Saint Michael slaying a demon.

On August 13, 1695, a 70,000-strong French army under Marshal François de Neufville, duc de Villeroi began a bombardment of Brussels in an effort to draw the League of Augsburg’s forces away from their siege on French-held Namur in what is now southern Belgium. The French launched a massive bombardment of the mostly defenseless city centre with cannons and mortars, setting it on fire and flattening the majority of the Grand Place and the surrounding city. Only the stone shell of the town hall and a few fragments of other buildings remained standing. That the town hall survived at all is ironic, as it was the principal target of the artillery fire.  The square was rebuilt in the following four years by the city’s guilds. Their efforts were regulated by the city councillors and the Governor of Brussels, who required that their plans be submitted to the authorities for their approval. This helped to deliver a remarkably harmonious layout for the rebuilt Grand Place, despite the ostensibly clashing combination of Gothic, Baroque and Louis XIV styles.

Tucked in and around the larger buildings are pubs and restaurants that do a booming business.  We stopped at Le Roy d’Espagne for a couple of excellent Belgian beers and really interesting people watching before dinner.  Like most pubs in the area, Le Roy served several hundred beers and I tried a white beer which was absolutely superb.    I don’t think during the entire week that I was there that I drank the same beer twice and I don’t recall being disappointed with any of them.  Brussels is a town that knows it’s beer.

We eventually pulled ourselves away from Le Roy and walked a few blocks to Le Samourai.  Fortunately our our trusty concierge had come through for us and our table was ready.  We sat down and immediately I knew I was in trouble.  I don’t know any Japanese and my French vocabulary for Japanese restaurants is pretty limited.  We somehow managed to get the gist of things from our waiter and Adam and Michele ordered a couple of beef dishes.  I ordered the chefs sashimi selection.  When I lived in France I found the sushi to be very different than what I was used to in the states and I wasn’t always crazy about it.  I wasn’t sure what to expect but the sashimi was quite good and I was not disappointed.  Definitely not at the level of some of the better NY sushi places like Blue Ribbon but the value for money was right up there.

Le Samourai, Chef's Selection, Sashimi

My dinner guests hadn’t tried fine chilled sake so I was hoping to make their first experience a good one.  Michele and Adam are that rare combination of exceptionally smart and fun and to order a dog of a sake definitely would have been a let down.  I wasn’t familiar with any of the sakes on the menu so I took our waiters recommendation and ordered a bottle of Kubota Manju, and it was fantastic.  Smooth, crisp, and served at just the right temperature.  One of the nicest sakes I’ve ever experienced.  We couldn’t have picked a better one and I’ve since been told that Adam and Michele are starting sake blogs of their own!

We finished the meal with green tea ice cream and then left to meet other conference attendees at our official workgroup pub, Delirium, with over 2,500 beers on the menu.  I had a feeling that it was going to be an exhausting week.

Upon returning home I did some research on Kubota Manju.  Apparently the brewers do not designate the level of this sake but it’s technically a junmai daiginjo since the rice is milled down to 28% of it’s original size.  Significantly more pure than most daiginjos which are milled to 40 or 50%.  Kubota is produced by Asahi Shuzo in te Nigata province of Japan.  Surprisingly Asahi Shuzo is one of the largest sake breweries in the world and they use a completely unique designation for their sale.  There are a couple of excellent posts I found on-line that talk about this sake, one is TrueSake.com where the Sake Guy John Gaunter talks at length about this phenomenal brewery.

“Few sake brands in Japan can equal the combination of ruthless branding power and true quality of Kubota. Perhaps the quintessential representative of Niigata sake, their reputation is all but unparalleled in the world of sake.

The brand name Kubota was actually only created in 1985, with the original brand name being Asahiyama, and Kubota being a “yago” or nickname for the company used by locals around the time of its inception back in 1830. Their timing was good, as at that time (in the early to mid 80s), a combination of the “ginjo boom” and a nationwide frenzy over Niigata sake were both taking root. Kubota rode this, fueled no doubt with diligent marketing efforts coupled with pristine quality, so that within a scant ten years, Kubota grew to unprecedented heights of popularity that it still enjoys today.

The company (Asahi Shuzo) is the largest in Niigata, which is the third largest sake-producing region in Japan, and one of the largest kura in all of eastern Japan. They have long been innovative, and were one of

Adam Eisner (left) of Tucows and Michele Neylon of Blacknight Solutions

the first kura to commit to going from wooden tanks to ceramic lined steel tanks back in 1929, way ahead of the national curve. This doubtlessly helped create the light, dry, very refined style that is Kubota, if not Niigata sake in general.

And it is not as if their success or penchant for quality is something new, either. In 1932 and 1933, they won first place among all sake in the country in the national new sake tasting competition; then in 1938 they won both first place *and* second place in the same vaunted competition. Few kura in the country can claim a feat equaling this.

Back in October of 2004, a brutal earthquake hit Niigata, and Kubota was one of 40 breweries hit hard. Tens of thousands of full bottles awaiting shipment were lost or damaged. “I can’t imagine the total damage,” said a company rep in a newspaper article. “It’s no exaggeration to say this is our company’s biggest crisis since its foundation in 1830. We’re going to do our best to overcome this difficult situation.” But overcome it they did, even employing some clever marketing like a “muroka nama genshu” (unpasteurized, unfiltered, undiluted) sake. Such a product had never been offered by the company, and was hailed as being in honor of 20 years of Kubota. Needless to say, it sold out in a jiffy (it was good, that’s for sure), providing much-needed revenues and stability, I imagine. But it was wonderfully indicative of the great leadership that has obviously always been behind that company.

There are about six grades of Kubota, depending on the season. Rather than go by simply the grade, such as ginjo-shu or daiginjo- shu, they all have a product name that is somewhat indicative of the level – assuming that is you can speak and read the language.

The three most well distributed and representative of Kubota are Hyaku-ju, Sen-ju and Man-ju. The “-ju” in these three means “congratulatory” or “long life,” and is the same character as the su- of sushi, for what it’s worth. Hyaku means 100, Sen means 1000, and Man means 10,000. Put them together and you can see how they are fairly easy to figure out. For the record, Hyakuju is a honjozo, Senju is a Tokubetsu Honjozo, and Manju is a junmai daiginjo.

By far the most popular of these is Kubota Manju. It has come to represent fine sake for so many Japanese everywhere. If you know nothing about sake, order the Kubota Manju. You will be safe, and no one will smirk or giggle. That is what it seems so many people are doing. But in truth, you will never go wrong with this product, so that conventional thinking holds up well.

Kubota Manju is incredibly clean, crisp, and elegant. It is indeed light and refined, but not at the expense of either flavor or aroma. Not by any stretch. Distribution is tightly controlled and it is not cheap, but what it is and what it represents almost dictates it must be tried”

http://www.truesake.com/newsletters/2007-01.php

Another excellent post on Kubota Manju can be found on vinography.com:

http://www.vinography.com/archives/2009/01/kubota_manju_junmai_daiginjo_n.html

Information on Le Grand Place from Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Place

I knew we were in for a good time when we walked in the door and were greeted with a shout by the cooks and wait staff (I assume everyone gets that treatment).  We sat at the counter which I strongly recommend.  The counter surrounds the cooking area and you get to watch all the food preparation action which is fascinating.

Robataya emulates the simple beachfront restaurants in Japan where fish is cooked over an open fire using an oar as the only cooking implement.  At Robataya your meals are grilled behind the counter and then passed to you on a large oar-like paddle.  When the cook passed my first course to us I wasn’t sure what quite to do with it and after he had been holding the 8 foot paddle out for a while he started pleading with me to take it as it was apparently getting heavy.

The grilled vegetables are superb at Robataya.  We particularly liked their mushrooms.  We also tried fish, chicken and beef dishes and they were uniformly excellent.  Portions are designed small enough so you can enjoy a range of dishes but large enough to share.

The sake menu is quite good with a range of sakes from affordable to super-premium.  We started with a Housui “Old Mountain” Junmai which is produced in the Tokushima prefecture located on the offshore island of Shikoku. Tokushima has a unique culture distinct from the mainland of Japan. Over 3/4 of Tokushima is covered by forests and the prefecture is also famous for its clear seas and abundant water. Yamahi Old Mountain Sake is cold brewed. Cold brewing is a process that is done in the winter time. Snow is collected in a kettle and the kettle is added to the brew, lowering the temperature and causing the brewing process to be slower and longer. The result is a sake that is darker in color and bit aged Riesling like in flavor. It has a delightful aroma of super dry, yeast mash sourness, which becomes even more pleasant and mildly sweet after it is allowed to breathe.

We followed with a Takatenjin “Shrine of the Village” Junmai Ginjo.  This sake is made by Doi Shuzo in the Shizuoka Prefecture of Japan. it’s brewed in small batches with Yamada Nishiki rice grown in the brewer’s own fields. A clean and dry sake with a bit of richness in the recesses and a quick finish.  This was a much more subtle sake than the Housui and if I had it to do over again I probably would have switched the order.

Robataya is on an extremely cool street, across from Decibel, with lots of Japanese establishments in the area.  Decibel is a basement-level sake bar that is very popular with the purple-hair crowd but makes for great people watching and a great spot for an after-dinner sake if you’re in the area.  Stay tuned for an upcoming post about it.

Robataya
231 East 9th St. (East Village between Stuyvesant and 2nd Ave)
NY, NY 10003
212-979-9674

Housui “Old Mountain” Junmai
Alcohol: 15.3%
Seimaibuai: 55% (rice is milled to 50% of its originally size)

Takatenjin “Shrine of the Village” Junmai Ginjo
SMV:  +5
Alcohol:  16.8%
Seimaibuai:  50%
Acidity:  1.4
Rice:  Yamada Nishiki
Yeast:  Shizuoka

Roppongi Restaurant, La Jolla

It’s had to believe that it’s 2010 and that I haven’t made a post in Sake World since before Thanksgiving!  The combination of the holidays, some crazy travel, and an insane year-end at work has unfortunately kept me away from the blog, but the good news is I’ve had several great sake experiences and thus have some good material to write about.

Just before Thanksgiving I had the pleasure of visiting my clients, the good guys from TierraNet, in San Diego.  San Diego is a pain to get in and out of, non-stop flights are scarce from Boston, but once you’re there it’s a different world.  While everyone talks about the weather, to me the biggest difference is the stress level which is noticeably lower than back east.  The other big difference is the price of hotels.  I got a sweet room in the Sheraton overlooking the San Diego marina with a balcony for under $100 a night.  I pride myself in being able to find cheap rooms anywhere but this was way beyond my expectations.  And having brought a few Correnti Cigars with me, I was in heaven on my smoking balcony each night.

My first full day there I spent the morning on conference calls at my hotel, gazing longingly out the window at the beautiful harbor – I think if I lived in San Diego I’d work a lot less.  Then spent the afternoon with John Matthews and Brian Scott from TierraNet.  Brian and a few friends started TierraNet as a hosting company while in their dorm room in college and now it’s one of the 50 biggest Internet domain registrars in the world.  TierraNet has been a long-time partner with my company NameMedia and our businesses are closely integrated.  We had a very productive afternoon and then headed out for dinner.  John had the challenge of finding a Japanese place worthy of a post in SakeWorld.com and he didn’t disappoint.

We headed up to La Jolla which is a beautiful town on the coast about a half hour north of San Diego.  I’d only been through La Jolla once before and that was 20 years ago so I was quite taken aback by how pretty the town is, especially entering the holiday season with all the lights.  We entered Rappongi which is a good sized, modern restaurant with indoor and outdoor seating.  The menu includes sushi, asian tapas, entree salads, and entrees such as Mongolian grilled shrimp, Hoisin Barbecue Roast Quail stuffed with shrimp and lobster, and pan-seared local halibut.  We started with a selection of tapas which were all excellent and also had what was probably my favorite sushi of the decade, the Kobe Roll which included lobster, crab, asparagus, white truffle aioli, and yes , KOBE BEEF.  I’ve never had sushi with red meat on it and it was inspiring.

As good as the kobe beef sushi was, the saké was event better.  Brian’s choice was the Nigori Genshu saké from the Murai Family.  Nigori means “cloudy” and Nigori saké is unfiltered leaving the rice sediment in the bottle.  This gives the saké its cloudy look.  Nigori is also the sweetest of all sakés with a fruity nose and a mild flavor, making a great drink to complement spicy foods or as a dessert wine. Before serving, the bottle must be shaken properly to mix the sediments with the sake, to obtain the full range of flavor and its “signature look”. It is advised that it be served well-chilled, storing it in an ice bucket to keep it from warming up between servings. It is also recommended, as with most sakes, to consume the entire bottle once opened as it begins to oxidize, altering its flavor.  Genshu means undiluted and unlike most sakés, there is no water added at the end to reduce the alcohol content.

The Murai family has been brewing saké for almost 200 years, and have won 57 consecutive gold medals for saké brewing excellent, a Japanese record.  Their sakémaster Yoshio Koizumi has been awarded the lifetime achievement award by Japan’s leading association of industry, government,  and consumer groups and is considered one of the top five saké brewers in Japan.

I’ve never been a huge Nigori fan but after this I was converted.  The sensation I had when drinking the Murai Nigori was Pina Colada.  It had a rich creamy texture with a hint of coconut.  I felt like I could have put an umbrella in the top and drunk it with a straw on the beach up the street.  Other Nigori’s that I have had have had the sediment swirling around but were flaky and thin.  The texture of this saké is what really made it work for me.  We liked it so much, we ordered a second bottle between the three of us.

All in all a great saké experience and one I hope to return to soon.

Rappongi Restaurant and Sushi Bar
875 Prospect St.
La Jolla, CA
+1 858-551-5252
http://www.roppongiusa.com

Murai Family
Nigori Genshu  Saké
SMV:  -22
Alcohol 19.9%
Rice Milling 75%
Rice:  Mutsuhomare

Sakagura Restuarant and Sake Bar

Sakagura restaurant is the reason I love saké.  This past week while attending the Ad Tech conference in New York I had a chance to take a couple of clients there.  Sakagura is located in midtown East in Manhattan and has over 500 sakés on the menu.  I’ve been going there for over five years and I have yet to be disappointed.  The saké is always mind blowing, the food superb, and the atmosphere feels like you’re in Tokyo.

Sakagura is the kind of place that you would never get to unless you knew about it.  On 43rd St between 2nd and 3rd there are nondescript office buildings, car rental agencies, parking lots and other typical mid-town Manhattan haunts.  In a town that has character in spades, midtown east is the exception, a culture vacuum.  In front of one of these apartment buildings is a little sign “Sakagura”.  You walk past a security guard who is usually asleep and wearing a dreaded Yankees hat.  I’ve always been tempted to switch with a Red Sox hat but never have one with me….  You go down a flight of stairs to the basement and down a corridor, and you get the feeling that you’re making a mistake.  It’s kind of dark and you begin to wonder if you’re going to leave with your watch and wallet.  Then you find the door and enter the restaurant, and it’s like an oasis.  Japanese perfection throughout, not a thing out of place from the woodwork to the plants.  Reservations are essential and even with one you usually have a wait as Sakagura is one of the best known high-end Japanese restaurants in the northeast.

The sommeillier for Sakagura is Ayuchi Momose and she knows her saké.  Momo tours Japan twice a year and visits select breweries to pick the sakés that Sakagura will stock that season.  Since I’ve been coming to Sakagura for many years Momo usually does a small tasting for me and my guests and we get to choose from her latest selections.  It’s a treat that I really look forward to.  Momo was leaving for Japan the next day for her fall tour but made time to run a mini-tasting for us.

Chicken Meatballs, Yumm.

The food is consistently good at Sakagura.  Sort of Japanese tapas if there is such a thing.  We started with the seaweed salad with is a melange of four types of seaweed with a soy dressing served on a bed of lettuce.  We also had the chicken meatballs, cod with soy, and shrimp balls covered with almonds.  I’m told this is very typical Japanese pub food but I’ve never had anything like it in Tokyo.

Momo started us out with a Urakasumi Hiyaoroshi.  The Urakasumi saké brewery was established over 280 years ago.  It is based in Shiogama, near the beautiful Matushima Bay in northeastern Japan. Urakasumi’s history dates back to the feudal lords of Japan who ordered its sacred saké to be offered to the gods of Shiogama Shrine in the feudal era. Hiyaoroshi is sake that is brewed during the coldest months of the year, usually February or early March.  Brewers feel this gives them the most control over the saké brewing process. Hiyaroshi saké is not pasturized at the time of bottling, and is shipped in September.  This roughly six month storage period over the summer allows the saké to mature moderately and develop a smooth and rounded balance.  Because they’re not pasteurized at bottling, Hiyaoroshi must be stored and shipped chilled.

Our Urakasumi Hiyaoroshi was extremely good.  The SMV was around +1.6 which is normally a bit sweeter than I normally prefer but this sake pulled it off.  On the palate it had a hint of sweetness but was very rich, you could taste the rice coming out with hints of caramel.  It’s a full bodied saké with nice balance.  For pairings it would go very well with grilled oily fish or hamachi or other sushi white fish.

The second saké was a Masumi Yumedono Daiginjo.  Miyasaka Brewery was founded in 1662 by Ihei Arimasa Miyasaka, the twelfth head of the Miyasaka family, who started a brewery at city of Kamisuwa, Nagano, Japan. The next 300 years were spent perfecting the refined saké “Masumi,” which today is highly regarded for its aroma, body, and rich taste. Miyasaka is one of the few breweries to have developed its own strain of high-quality yeast.

Translated, Miyasaka Masumi Yumedono means “Mansion of Dreams”, and it was a very enjoyable saké.  We tasted peach, melon and anise and it had a tremendous amount of depth.  This was an exceptional saké and went perfectly with our last course which was grilled chicken.

All in all a fantastic meal with some extraordinary saké.

Sakagura
211 East 43rd Street
(Between 2nd & 3rd Ave)
NY NY 10017
+1-212-953-7253

Best Sushi in Canada – believe it or not….

When I scheduled a dinner meeting with friend and client Bill Sweetman in Toronto two weeks ago, I knew the restaurant would be a good one.  To call Bill a “foodie would be a complete understatement.  Bill prides himself in being up on the best restaurants in Toronto and in a city with so many to choose from, he has a fun job.

When the taxi dropped us off at the restaurant, I immediately thought that Bill’s streak was over.  Sushi Kaji is on the Queensway in Etobicoke, part of greater Toronto.  The strip mall setting is about as ugly as that style of retail gets and the surrounding eateries include a Baskin Robbins and a Burger King, not the type of place to build you confidence about the meal your going to eat, especially raw seafood.

The interior of Kaji is basic Japanese, clean and minimalist.  It’s a fairly small place holding only 30 people and reservations are strongly recommended.  We were there on a Tuesday night and within minutes of our arrival the place was packed.  The majority of the clientele was Asian which is always a good sign with sushi.

The first thing that struck me was the menu.  There are three different dinner menus and each one looked excellent.  I chose the Takumi option which included grilled chicken, grilled conch, deep fried burdock cake, sushimi, a mushroom soup, bulb cake stuffed with sea urchin, grilled black cod, sushi, and green tea ice cream for desert.  I’ve had a lot of great Japanese food but this was right up there with anything I’ve ever experienced.  Each course was prepared to perfection and the presentation was a thing of beauty.  Interestingly Kaji imports all their fish and vegetables from Japan and they must use fast transit because everything was fresh and amazing.  The coup de grace was the gold leaf on the sushi which I’ve never had before.

More impressive than the food though was the sake.  The sake list was impressive with a number that I hadn’t had before.  We started with an Otokoyama Junmai from the Hokkaido region of Japan.  The sake was server in a chilled green porcelain bamboo container with matching glasses, a nice touch and I’m definitely going to try to find a set like that for home.

There is some darn fine sake being made on the island of Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island. Here the snows blow in from the Sea of Japan, and fall heavy and deep after a short, brilliant Autumn. Temperatures regularly drop below zero, and like many places in the extreme north, the seas often freeze solid for extended periods of time. Hokkaido also has rugged, mountainous terrain springing up inland from its coastal plains which captures and holds the snowfall, channeling it deep underground where it is naturally filtered, and from where it often emerges as natural mountain springs.

One of the most famous of these springs is the Shikomimizo spring that emerges from Mt. Taisetsu near the town of Asahikawa. And from this spring water, a sake brewery named Otokoyama (literally translated as “Man’s Mountain”) has been making sake for more than 340 years. Apparently it was the drink of choice for the Shoguns of the Tokugawa family in Japan’s Edo period. It is certainly old enough and famous enough to have been featured in several of the ancient woodblock paintings by artist Utamaro who showed a dual affinity for beautiful women and alcoholic beverages, especially sake.

Otokoyama is now one of Japan’s largest sake producers, and like many of the other larger breweries, they offer a a dizzyingly complex array of products, very few of which ever make it to the US. I believe Otokoyama exports five sakes, of which this is their finest. It is made from Yamada Nishiki rice, the favored sake rice grown in the Hyogo prefecture which for all intents and purposes is the heartland of sake production in Japan. The Hyogo town of Itami was the most famous sake town in Japan’s history and many sake making dynasties, including Otokoyama’s had their origins in Itami.

Tasting Notes:
Completely colorless in the glass this sake has a classically daiginjo floral nose with hints of jasmine tea and just the tiniest hints of fresh pink bubblegum. In the mouth it is smooth and extremely silky in texture with lovely acidity and a floral, rainwater quality that makes for an incredibly clean experience on the palate. Effortless and ethereal are two words that come to mind.

Food Pairing:
With a sake this delicate, it is easy to overwhelm it with strong flavors. I recommend it either sipped on its own, or paired with light dishes such as seaweed salad or cold tofu with ginger and soy sauce.

We then switched to a Tamanohikari Omachi Junmai Daiginjo from Kyoto Japan.  This sake is produced by the Tamanohikari Shuzo brewery in Kyoto Japan.  It uses the Bizen Omachi rice which is an ancient and uncommon strain and gives it a unique and delicate flavor.  Bill and I were both floored by this sake.  The sake meter value is +3.5 and it tasted dry but not overly so.  A very pleasant experience.  I actually couldn’t find a lot about this brewery on-line other than translated, it means “Brilliant Jade”.  This sake is going on my favorites list though

Sushi Kaji Restaurant

http://www.sushikaji.com
860 The Queensway
Etobicoke, Ontario M8Z 1N7
TEL:416-252-2166

Sake review on Otokoyama by Vinography.com, http://www.vinography.com/archives/2006/08/otokoyama_daiginjo_sake_hokkai.html

Hakutaka, “White Falcon,” Brewery founded in 1862

Fall in New England is my favorite time of year.  The temperature is perfect for outdoor activities like hiking and mountain biking, soccer season starts and I can watch my kids remember how to kick the ball again after a crazed summer of trips and vacation, but most of all I love fall because it’s the beginning of the sake brewing season.

Seasonal events involving alcohol are a cause for celebration around the world.  I’ve experienced this in Munich with Octoberfest, joining tens of thousands of Germans in huge tents drinking enormous steins of beer (worst hangover of my life the next day).  In the Burgundy region of France I spent an amazing weekend drinking some of the best wine I’ve ever had while the area came alive with the excitement of the harvesting of the grapes (second-worst hangover of my life).  Unlike Bordeaux where the vineyards are huge, in Burgundy grapevines are crammed into every nook and cranny and you’ll see backyards with grapevines set up to exploit every square foot of available space.  The harvest there takes on a special feeling as the activity is occurring literally in and around the houses as well as the vineyards.  My friend Rick of Swedish descent regails us all with tales of Glug, some kind of concoction from the northern climes that is extremely popular in Scandinavian homes during Christmas.

In Japan the saké brewing season begins in October.  While a few of the larger breweries produce sake all year, most shut down for the spring and summer and the fall is a time to begin the process again.  Saké is best produced in cooler temperatures and since most brewers don’t have the equipment to manage this in the hotter summer months, they make their saké from October to April.

This is a tradition that has been going on for hundreds of years.  In feudal Japan the shogun issued an edict that saké could only be brewed after the autumn equinox.  Since rice was used as a form of currency, after the harvest farmers would pay their taxes to the shogun in rice.  Rice farmers would then take what was left over and use their non-farming down-time months to brew saké.  In the spring they would go back to farming and the breweries would shut down until the following October when the cycle would begin again.  This same dynamic exists today where most of the workers involved in the saké brewing process are farmers who need work during the off-season.

Saké breweries today are going through an interesting change as a newer generation has entered the workforce and is learning the art.  These new workers are mostly locals who, unlike the migrant farmers, can go home after work and sleep in their own beds.  Saké brewing is hard work and the old guard believes in paying your dues and they make it hard on the newer workers.  Additionally more and more women are entering the field which has increased the pressure by the older more established brewers.  There are many cases of newer workers quitting in frustration over the working conditions but the ownership of these breweries is also turning over to the next generation of 30-something western-educated managers who understand the need for a change.

The kickoff of the season begins with cleanup of the facilities and complete sanitization of the equipment.  If you’ve ever been to Japan you can only imagine how maniacal this process must be.  Then the rice is polished, and finally the first batches of saké are produced.  Brewers generally start with the lower grade sakés and switch to gradually higher grades as the temperature drops.  By January or February the producers are brewing their ultra-premium Junmai sakés.

The native religion of Japan is Shinto and you can see the extent by which saké is ingrained in the national psyche when each October a Shinto priest is invited to the shrine that exists at each saké brewery.  The entire company gathers for a ceremony to pray for the upcoming saké season.

I chose to celebrate the opening of saké season with a delightful, full-bodied Junmai Ginjo.   Ichishima Junmai Ginjo is a dry saké (SMV +4) that like their Genshu opens a bit on the rough side but smooths out quickly and opens up with complex floral notes and gives way to a creamy, light body.  I could see this going with Asian cuisine such as sushi or pad thai, or even turkey or a cheese course.  Naturally it was a Friday night so my pairing was pizza and I must say it was an excellent combination.  The saké improved as it opened and when I finished the evening with a cigar all was good with the world.

Ichishima Junmai Ginjo
Brewery:  Ichishima Shuzo
Region:  Nigaa, Japan
Rice:  Gohyakumangoku
Rice Milling Rate:  50%
SMV:  +4
Alcohol:  15%
$34.99 at Fresh Pond Liquors, Cambridge Massachusetts

Mark S. Umphrey, 1958 - 2009

Mark like so many students at U Lowell came from humble roots and went there for the quality of the engineering program and the relatively low tuition cost.  Mark was from Worcester and programs like Worcester Polytech cost 5-6 times more than our state school.  He and several friends from the Worcester area enrolled at U Lowell two years before I did, and joined the fraternity their freshman year.

Every school has its “animal house” and Phi Psi was U Lowell’s version.  One weekend I needed a ride to school and when my parents dropped me off my mother asked if there had been a fire there.  Many of the windows were broken from various wild parties and the exterior hadn’t been touched in decades.  The ancient victorian had a flat roof where we spent much of our time in the nicer weather.  Our house had the Wednesday night party slot where we charged a $1.00 cover charge that went to the band and sold beers for $0.50 and a devilish concoction called “kit” for $1.00.  Kit was a secret mix passed down from class to class but the primary ingredient was grain alcohol which we procured from the drug store up the street.  Wednesday night was the best deal in town, you could show up with $5.00 and get live entertainment and four kits which you’d still be feeling the following afternoon.

Mark was a fixture at all Phi Psi events but as president of Phi Psi was a bastion of calm and responsibility.  One night when I went off the rails and incited a small riot Mark assessed me a $10 fine which I duly paid.  I thought twice about causing breakage knowing I’d lose 2 hours of my hard earned pay as a roofer on weekends for the next incident.  Mark was tough as nails and in a rough town like Lowell, had plenty of opportunities to test himself.  He never backed down from anyone.  One night he came back from a party with a collection of scrapes and bruises but laughed that even though he got the worse of his encounter that night, it was nothing compared to our drunken fraternity wrestling matches.  I can vouch for that, I wrestled in high school and could beat most of my brothers on the mat but constantly marveled at how they could find ways to leverage a coffee table or bed frame to inflict the maximum about of pain on you.

The travel Gods were smiling on me as I landing at Logan from Toronto on Friday night.  The wake was from 4:00 to 8:00PM in Lowell and my flight landed almost on time at 6:40.  Note:  I flew Porter Airlines out of Toronto Island Airport which was one of the most pleasant airline experiences I’ve had in years.  I was seated in row two with gate-checked baggage so was second in line at immigration and breezed through.  I paid the parking ticket at a kiosk and flew out of central parking minutes later.  There are times when I think the Big Dig was worth every penny of the $14 Billion that we paid for it and this was one of them.  I screamed through the tunnel network from east Boston to route 93 north and was out of the city in under 10 minutes.  Traffic was moderate and moving quickly, I tucked into a group of cars in the fast lane and quickly we were touching 80 mph.  As traffic cleared each of us took turns taking lead.  The front car would pull over and let the others pass, then pull in behind and keep up.  I always enjoy this protocol, the cars in the middle are the least likely to get a ticket so it’s only fair to switch around.

I arrived at the funeral home at 7:40, in plenty of time to pay my respects to Mark’s family.  You never know how these things will hit you until you arrive and I had an awful feeling in the pit of my stomach to see my friend after all these years in his coffin.  Mark was way too young to move on.  He has a wonderful family with a son in medical school and a daughter in the masters program for public health at Boston University.  Mark was president of Thermo Engineering and leveraged his experiences at the Animal House into success both at home and in his career.

Attending the wake were three of my closest fraternity brothers.  John and Steve Fairbanks, and Rick Strand.  John was also known as “Fearless” Fairbanks and saved my neck on more than one occasion when I got in over my head.  John was a black belt in Karate and at 6 ft 2 could side kick most mortals across the gym.  His brother Steve never practiced but would show up for the tournaments hung over and always seem to win more fights than he lost.  Rick was probably the most naturally talented fighter of the bunch with flexibility and strength that would enable him to throw and land high-section kicks from just about anywhere.  He rarely fought in tournaments but when we could talk him into it he never lost a fight.  His main reason was that collegiate tournaments didn’t allow contact to the head which he felt took all the fun out of it.

We arranged to meet after the wake at a Feng Shui, a Japanese restaurant near the Wang towers in Chelmsford Massachusetts.  Feng Shui is a sparkling multi-level facility with a hibachi section, a buffet, and traditional seating.  We joined John’s mother and wife at a big table and toasted Mark and each other.  It had been quite a few years since we had all been together and despite the sadness of the moment it was wonderful to be with such old and great friends.  We talked about the good times, the parties, the close calls and triumphs of college life, and wondered why it was Mark’s time to go.  The appetizers and sushi were excellent and the price was extremely reasonable, under $100 per person for literally a boatload of sushi and saké.

And yes course we drank saké, lots and lots of saké.  Feng Shui’s sake menu has a couple of very drinkable Junmai Ginjo’s.  Hakushika which I’ve written about before is one of my favorite table saké’s.  Its clean taste and reasonable cost make it extremely popular at many restaurants.  It is moderately dry and served chilled is a very pleasant experience.  We shared a couple of bottles and then switched to a very interesting saké that I’ve had before and been meaning to write about.

Momokawa Silver is produced by SakeOne of Forest Grove Oregon, one of the few saké’s that is brewed in the US.  Like most saké breweries in Japan, proximity to an ultra-pure source of water is key.  SakeOne is located on the east slope of the Coast Range at the edge of a lush rainforest aquifer.

Founded by an American who evolved into a saké visionary after experiencing the finest sakés Japan had to offer, SakéOne was first incorporated in Oregon in 1992 under the name Japan America Beverage Co. (JABC). It was established through a joint partnership with Momokawa Brewing Inc. Japan of Momoishi, Aomori Prefecture, Japan, a saké producer since 1856 that brought deep product knowledge and ages of experience. The new company started as an importer, then built its facility in Forest Grove just a few years later. In October of 1998, JABC changed its name to SakéOne and became the world’s only American-owned-and-operated sakéry.

I like how Momokawa has positioned this brand.  There are four different sub-brands within Momokawa:  Silver, Ruby, Pearl, and Diamond.  They vary greatly in terms of their level of dryness ranging from the extremely sweet Pearl (SMV -20) to the very dry Silver (SMV +6).  The Silver is has a deeper richer taste than the Hakushika.  John tasted Anacet, but the consensus was that too much kit had destroyed his taste buds.  I find it to taste extremely dry with an aroma of green apples.

As we finished the evening we touched glasses with one final toast, “To Ump” John said.  A fine man who will be missed.

Feng Shui Restaurant
285 Chelmsford St
Chelmsford, MA 01824
978-250-8888

Momokawa Silver Sake
$14.85 at InternetWines.com
From: Oregon (USA)
SMV: +6 (Dry)
Acidity: 1.8
Alcohol: 15%

McLean Hospital, Belmont Massachusetts, Arial View

The first challenge is how to pack the sake.  No self-respecting mountain biker would put a pannier on his bike and my Trek is no exception.  I considered putting it in my water bottle but figured the plastic would ruin the flavor and let it warm up too quickly.  I settled on a small day pack with a small ceramic sake cup and a couple of gel packs out of the freezer.  This of course had the added benefit of letting me fill my water bottle with water which is usually a good thing on a long ride.

Small tangent – gel packs keep sake cold but if you’re into extreme sports they are a lifesaver.  I keep several of them in my freezer along with velcro sleeves that you can use to hold the cold gel packs onto various parts of your body after you’ve done your best to annihilate yourself.  For me it’s knees, Achilles tendons, and lower back.  CVS could double the price and I’d still buy them every year.

With backpack fully loaded I hopped on The Trek for a nice ride on a warm fall Sunday morning.  My path takes me from my house to the town center where I make my obligatory stop at Starbucks.  Mornings there I often run into friends who road cycle but sake at 6:00AM is a bit early for me so I started a bit later .  From Starbucks I then head up Belmont Hill which is a hell of a thing to hit at the beginning of a ride.  With an elevation of 320 feet and a vertical drop of over 200 feet over a very short distance it gets your heart rate going and you’re sweating bullets before you hit the trails.

Leaving Belmont Hill you enter the grounds of McLean’s Hospital.   McLean’s is a fascinating place.  Founded in Charlestown Massachusetts in 1811 as McLean’s Hospital for the Mentally Insane, McLean’s moved to Belmont in the 1870’s on a wooded plot of 107 acres.  Frederick Law Olmstead was involved in selecting the land and designing much of the landscaping for the grounds.  Recently the hospital agreed to preserve over 100 acres of land in perpetuity as green space for the town of Belmont.  That was good news but equally impressive was their recent finding that sustained use of Peyote causes no long-term damage in human brains.  Not sure how I missed out on that clinical trial.  McLean’s treats rock stars and other celebrities in their elite program at $25,000 per week.  I guess if you’re going to have issues there are worse places to sort them out.

My normal ride takes me through park of the McLean’s grounds and then into a section called Rock Meadow.  Rock Meadow is a large parcel of meadowlands, wetlands, woodlands and community gardens on about 70 acres of conservation land in the northwest corner of Belmont.  It has existed as open space for as long as records are available.  Rock Meadow was for many years owned by McLean’s and was used as a working farm.  There are still foundations from the farm buildings scattered about.  The riding there is very flat with a nice trail network throughout.  Following it to the other side takes you into the town of Waltham and the Beaver Brook preservation area where the riding gets more interesting.

Beaver Brook is a very wooded and rugged area.  There are fire roads crisscrossing it with trails shooting off the roads and merging back again.  I’ve found myself lost in this area many a time before I finally figured out a route where I could enjoy myself and ride hard without trying to figure out where I was going.  The trails have all the usual fun including fallen trees, huge mud puddles after a rain, and trails passing through partial gaps in rock walls requiring jumping and bouncing.  Last weekend the Trek needed a new $70 front derailleur as a result of one of those.

Beaver Brook connects with the long-closed Metropolitan State Hospital grounds in Waltham.  The place has some fascinating abandoned old buildings but the Karma is off-the-charts bad there and I ride fast to get out of that part of the route.

Heading back through Beaver Brook, I stopped at one of my favorite spots for part two of the mission.  There’s a stone foundation from an ancient old house in a nice shaded area.  I pulled the Trek over and sat on a nice flat rock and unpacked my sake.  Fortunately it was still cold, my CVS gel packs having done their job yet again.  I picked a Junmai Genshu from Ichishima for the ride.  Genshu means “Raw” and Genshu Sake is pasteurized and then bottled without adding water to reduce the alcohol content.  Genshu sake is usually about 20% alcohol rather than the 14-17% of normal sake.  The texture and flavor of Genshu sake is quite unique, I generally notice a much higher level of acidity.  The extra alcohol definitely delivers a  kick too so you need to be careful and pace yourself depending on the situation.

The Ichishima Shuzo brewery is located in the Nigata, a mountainous region on the west coast of the Japanese island of Honshu.  Skiing was first introduced to Japan in Honshu.  Ichishima was founded in 1790 and has been in operation and managed by the same family ever since.  Ichishima was one of the first breweries to allow female workers into the workplace and is a perennial gold medal winner at National New Sake Competitions in Japan.  This sake uses the Gohyakumangoku and Koshibuki strains of rice and has a sake meter value of +4 meaning it’s medium dry.

I poured some sake into the small sake cup that I had brought and savored the moment.  I feel very lucky to be so close to Boston yet to have miles of uninterpreted biking trails connected to my town.  In this spot I’m 8 miles from Boston’s financial district yet all I can hear are birds.  Very cool.

The sake really started to open up nicely after a few minutes.  Genshu’s taste “big” and they usually need a bit of time to find themselves, the initial taste often feels a bit harsh.  My Genshu was coming around well and it just kept getting better as I poured a second cup.  A woman walked by with her dog and laughed when she saw what I was doing.    I was definitely wishing I had some nice cheese to go with it but that might have to wait until next fall.

The interesting thing about combining mountain biking and sake is that after a great workout the sake tends to get absorbed into your system pretty quickly so I passed on  a third cup and packed my things for the ride home.  The ride home was considerably slower than the ride in and this leg was the slowest since I’ve discovered this route.

Do Mountain Biking and sake go together?  Most definitely, but save the sake for the downhill leg on the way home!

Sake is made from rice but the enzymes that convert the starch to sugar are on the outside of the rice.  The outer shell of sake rice is removed before being introduced to the brewing process so sake brewers use a special kind of mold called Koji-kin to convert the starch in rice to sugar.  The thing that makes the sake process unique is that the process of converting starches to sugar occurs at the same time as the fermentation.  No other alcoholic beverage uses quite the same process as sake.

The rice used to make sake is called Sakamai and is very different than the rice that we eat.  Sakamai rice grains are 25% larger than table rice and are much more challenging and time intensive to grow.  The rice stalks grow very tall and due to the large size of the grains are prone to tip over and fall into the water in the rice paddy during storms which will ruin them.  This height means the rice must be harvested by hand rather than by machine.  Sakamai is also more susceptible to insecticides, and requires optimal growing conditions.  As a result of all these factors sake rice is three times more expensive than table rice.

The starches for sake rice are concentrated in the center of the kernel.  The proteins, minerals, and fats which can adversely affect the flavor of the sake are distributed on the outside.  For that reason sake rice is milled to remove the outer shell before the brewing process begins.  The milling of the rice must be done slowly and carefully as if it’s done too quickly, the rice will heat up which will adversely affect the flavor of the finished product.

The more of the outside shell that is milled away, the more pure the sake will be.  Premium sake is rated by different classes and a major determinant of class is the degree by which the sake is milled.  Junmai Dai Ginjo which is the highest grade of sake is made with rice that has had up to 65% of the rice grain removed.  The powder that is milled away is not wasted but is reused for livestock feed and consumer foods such as crackers.

After the rice has been polished it is washed and soaked.  The washing removes any remaining powder from the milling.  Soaking allows the rice to absorb water which is controlled very carefully in premium sake.  The amount of water absorbed by the rice will greatly affect how the rice dissolves during the fermentation process.

Once the rice has finished soaking it is steamed.  The rice must be steamed to a point where it is neither too mushy nor too firm.  After the rice is steamed it is spread out on large pieces of cloth to cool.

The next phase is a crucial one where some the rice (usually around 30%) is set aside and mixed with a special mold called Koji-kin.  The mold is sprinkled onto the rice and mixed over the course of two days.  The resulting mix is called Koji and it takes many years for a sake brewer to understand this part of the process.  Sake brewers typically do not sleep much if at all when the Koji is being made.

When the Koji is complete it is mixed with yeast and a small amount of lactic acid to protect against bacteria.  The yeast feeds off the sugars created by the Koji to begin the fermentation process.  Gradually more rice is added over a 2-3 week period to create what’s called Moto.

The Moto is then combined in much larger vats with the remainder of the rice and lots of water.  The rice and water are added in phases over a four-day period to create what’s called Moromi.  The Moromi is then allowed to ferment for 18 to 32 days.  The brewer must take care to stop the fermentation process at the proper time as too long or too little fermentation will dramatically impact the sake flavor.

The next phase is pressing.  Pressing has changed radically over the years and is automated in many breweries today.  In olden times the Moromi was put in cloth bags which were then put into presses and squeezed to eject the liquid which was in fact the sake.  Modern breweries use an accordion-like machine to press the sake but there exist breweries today that still use the manual method and many people find that the flavor is noticeably better.  Sake typically sits for 10 days after pressing to allow sediments to settle and chemical processes to finish.

The next step is filtering where the bits of rice are removed from the sake.  After this the sake is pasteurized by heating it to 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

Finally, water is added to the sake to bring its alcohol content down from its natural amount of 20% to around 16%.  Most sakes then age for 3-6 months before bottling.

This is an extremely simplistic overview of the brewing process.  Sake has been being made for thousands of years and the evolution of the brewing process is a complex and fascinating topic.  There are numerous web sites and resources that go into much more detail about the sake brewing process including:

http://www.sake-world.com/html/brewing-process.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake

I hope this post was informative.  Next I’ll be reviewing a delightful little sake that I picked up locally and can’t wait to open.  Stay tuned.

Yama