Manotsuru Hizo Koshu Daiginjo, 10 Years Old

Frankly, most sakes don’t age all that well, and the vast majority of sake is intended to be drunk within a year or so of release. There is a small category of sake, however, called koshu, that is truly ageworthy.

Sado Island boasts one of the most famous gold mines in the world (it ceased operation a couple of decades ago), and in a stroke of inspiration, a group of sake producers has appropriated one of its cool, underground tunnels for use as a cellar. It’s normally off-limits to visitors, but Mrs. Rumiko Obata took us down there for a little peek and generously treated us to a sip of her rare Manotsuru Hizo Koshu Daiginjo.

Aged for ten years, this shows unbelievably elegant aromas of white truffle, fresh porcini and bone marrow, with a graceful, subtly layered fragrance. On the palate it’s like a hit of pure umami, demonstrating a burnished, biscuity character that my friend Akiko compared to aged champagne, yet it doesn’t taste “old” at all, as the overall feel is one of vigor and vitality. Even at ten years of age this exhibits a classic Niigata character—clean, dry and light on its feet—and finishes with long, taut and complex flavor. I’ve tasted some excellent koshu before, but never anything quite like this.

Later that day, we tasted a younger version of this sake, brewed last year and tucked away in the cellar (it will also be released at ten years of age). Sake and wine often behave very differently, but in this aspect, this koshu showed exactly the same character that you might expect a young, ageworthy wine to possess, emphasizing structure over aroma and feeling closed, restrained and slightly constricted. It’s the first time I’ve ever had an opportunity to do a comparative tasting of koshu sake like that, and it’s an experience I won’t easily forget.

Hokusetsu Shuzo, Sado Island, Niigata

I visited a sake brewery for the first time in my life today: Hokusetsu Shuzo on Sado Island, in the Sea of Japan just off of the coast of Niigata, Hokusetsu is particularly famous for being the exclusive sake of the Nobu restaurants. This is Hokusetsu’s toji, Mr. Kanji Watanabe, who has been making sake here for the past ten years. Here Mr. Watanabe is showing us the koji-making process. Koji is rice that has been cultivated with aspergillus oryzae, a mold that converts the starches in the rice into sugar so that the yeasts can convert the sugar into alcohol. Up close and personal, it looks like this:



To get to that stage, the rice has to be steamed first, which is what these guys on the left are doing. Afterwards, the rice gets injected with the mold and goes into the trays below, which are organized in an automatic system that shifts the trays around, stirring the koji in each one. Making the koji is an important part of the sake-making process, and contributes a lot of character to the final product.

Nobu The Sake is a daiginjo, with high-toned, delicately fruity notes of green melon and sweet apple. The house’s regular daiginjo is thicker in texture, with darker fruit notes of cherry and plum, while the top-end daiginjo is fragrant, floral and full of elegance—it’s labeled YK35, which indicates that it’s made from Yamada Nishiki rice and Kumamoto yeast, and polished to 35 percent of the original grain.

Sado Island is full of fantastic food, sake and culture. Besides being home to all those things I said yesterday, it also features the toki (Japanese crested ibis), which is being brought back from the verge of extinction; the world-famous Kodo drummers; and the amazing Hana no Ki, a traditional inn that serves phenomenal food and that specializes in the camelia flower — it’s pretty, you can make healthy and delicious oil from it, and you can even eat it.

Eating in Tokyo: Shokkan

A rainy evening in Tokyo (I do realize that I was in Paris yesterday and in Oregon three days ago—it’s a long story). Seeing all the neon through the rain at night makes it feel especially Blade Runner-esque. At the little wine store in the Tokyo Station next to my hotel you can buy Cristal Rosé for ¥63,000, as well as a host of other elite wines. In case, you know, I get a late-night urge.

We had an absolutely splendid dinner at a small, modern kaiseki restaurant called Shokkan, in Shibuya. This is Kouei Furukawa, who possesses crazy mad knife skills. He treated us to nine subtle, thoughtfully inspired courses, each more beautiful and delicious than the next. It’s an open kitchen with 30 seats all around, like L’Atelier de Joël Robuchon, so one has the pleasure of watching them work.

I loved this delicate soup of wakame seaweed and the lightest, wispiest balls of mochi, like what polenta could only dream of becoming. Owner Ken Sato keeps a terrific wine list as well, including Egly-Ouriet, Bollinger and Dom Pérignon among his champagnes. We drank saké, of course: a rich, almost caramelly Sawaya Matsumoto Junmai from Kyoto; the cool, briskly melony Kenkon Ichi Junmai Ginjo from Miyagi; the Yamagata Masamune Junmai Ginjo, which was full in body and rich in flavor, in typical Yamagata style; and a Tengumai Tokubetsu Junmai from Ishikawa, with a silky, sleek texture and pungent, peppery green fruit aromas.


I’d give you Shokkan’s address, but it baffles me, and anyway it’s all in Japanese. You could go to their website, which is also all in Japanese, of course. It's definitely a place worth finding.