In article , Geoff Waters
wrote:

Otokoyama (cold!) is a good place to start. Or Suigei or suishin. Ask
them which "cold premium sakes" they have.

Back after a few years away.

I'm quite a Sake fiend. Recently at a restaurant new to me, I asked
for cold sake and what they had. They tried to pawn off the usual
Sho-chiku-bai and Ozeki single-serves. Which are getting better in
recent years, by the way.

Nonetheless I noted a number of the large bottles nearby and asked
about those instead. I stressed again I wanted "cold sake" and "country
sake" and other wink-and-nudge methods I use to avoid hot nameless
sweet swill and hopefully to find interesting novelties.

They had Otokoyama (a mainstay of my home habit) as well as Karatamba
and Suishin. I like them all, I went with Suishin and he made a point
of saying it was room-temperature. Was that okay? Sure, what the
hell. They poured it into a lovely wine glasses. I prefer it in the
small cup, with overflow trough. Failing that the small cups and
flasks is okay. A wine glass? Oh well.

But drinking it at room temperature was pretty nice, frankly I was
impressed, despite having had Suishin many times before. I felt the
same kind of difference as between well-chilled and less-chillled
German Beer. The later really blooms in taste. Same with the
room-temperature Suishin.

I got home and recently bought a bottle of Otokoyama and a type I
hadn't had in a while; Hanonomai "Katana" extra dry, which was supposed
to be Ginjo. Between Ginjo, Jummai, Genshu, etc., I'm always confused
over which is what and why. So I looked it up in "The Book of Sade"
(Kondo, pub: Kodansha), and read this part again.

But the thing I noted--elsewhere was a list of premium sakes and their
qualities--I was amazed to find that in the intervening 5-6 years I've
tried many of these!

And Suishin, it noted, should be drunk at room temperature. Live and
learn. Particularly with a tasteful buzz.

--
///--- Vote for the richest Republican. He understand the common man.

Went to Bristol Farms in nearby Newport Beach. Got fancy vinegars and
past and all kinda good eats.

Noted that they had a rack of sakes outside the wine section. Over by
the deli. Maybe 12-15 different bottles, all more or less a fifth-sized
bottle, maybe closer to a bottle of wine.

All were country sake's mostly Jummai Ginjo and though 3 or 4 cost
$25-ish, most were 45 up to 67 bucks. Man-o-man I hope they don't get
popular at those prices! Later in the wine section there are few
different ones, more moderatly priced but still up there when you
realize the big-jug (is that liter?) is around $40 for many excellent
sakes.

A label was on the back of all of them in English and concluded with a
web site they may be of interest:

http://www.esake.com

--
///--- Vote for the richest Republican. He understand the common man.

In article , Gerry
wrote:

Through perusal of Gauntner's sake site:

http://www.esake.com

I encountered (finally!) an Unitedstatesian importer that distributes
fine small-brewerey sake and will mail it directly to your home if you
live in 34 states. They can get in there from 2-5 days in 18 states,
closer to two weeks in the others.

http://www.800wine.com/sake.cfm

Pretty cool if you're a sake fan...

--
///--- Vote for the richest Republican. He understand the common man.