Akashi-Tai Junmai Ginjo Sparkling Sake is made at the Akashi Sake Brewery. It is made in the same way as Champagne and other traditional method sparkling wines starting with a Ginjo Sake then undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The brewery was founded by the Yonezawa family in 1886 in the town of Akashi, one of the major fishing town in the west of Japan. It is an excellent location for a sake brewery with the surrounding fertile soils which are perfect for growing rice and plenty of clean spring water supplies which need for sake production. Akashi Tai is a small artisanal brewery, known as a ‘kura’, who would have previously mainly supplied the local population. However, since the new president Kimio Yonezawa, took over there have been some major developments. The brewery has expanded and modernized its sake-brewing activities, and now produces and sells a wide variety of hand-crafted sakes. This cookie is set by Rubicon Project to control synchronization of user identification and exchange of user data between various ad services. Records the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie. It’s brewed at the famous Hayashi Honten, one of a few Japanese breweries run by a woman, in Gifu prefecture. Jidai as well as the previous Tedorigawa Junmai are made using a more traditional yamahai method, which results in a richer and deeper taste and higher acidity. However, Judai is still ginjo sake with a fruity aroma full of apricot, pear, baked apple and a bit of herbal notes. Before the small, artisanal Akashi-tai ‘kura’ – or brewery to you and me (well, me anyhow) – became renowned for making sake, it produced soy sauce and traded in rice. This began towards the end of what is known as the Tokugawa Period (1600-1867), and it wasn’t until 1918 that Akashi first started making sake.

When you try Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai chilled, you taste its high acidity straight away. It has a nice creamy texture and is quite a mouthful feel with a long finish with a vanilla aftertaste. You can notice prunes and apple crumble flavours and the taste in general quite deep. However, when you start to warm it up, the sake opens up and the acidity becomes milder but doesn’t disappear completely. Actually, it was one of the main things I liked about Akashi-Tai Tokubetsu JUnami: its ability to hold acidity even at a high temperature. The warmer sake gets, the more sweetness comes out and the more mouthful it becomes. I liked it best at 50C as Miho san recommended. As relevant now as it was then, Akashi-tai continues to be a market-leader and relentless tailblazer of authentic, Japanese sake. If you fancy a taste of something new, or enjoy the odd sake and want a prime example, you’re in the right place. Kanpai! The balance of refined elegance and complexity found in Akashi-Tai range of sakes make them great for drinking on their own, but they also work beautifully when paired with all types of food. As well as being the heartland of sake, Hyogo is also known throughout Japan and beyond for its food culture, making it a global hotspot for gastronomy. This epicurean trait has of course had an influence on the sake the region is known for, and Akashi-Tai is a prime example, having grown up alongside the vivid flavours of one of the world’s most evolved cuisines. Mr Yonezawa says that he is driven by “that moment when food and sake become one, and both are amplified, when the food reveals hidden depths in the sake, and the sake lingers and prolongs the pleasure of the meal”. Due to the Japanese wanting to become more western, wanting to drink beers and whiskey and cognacs, the poor little sake brewers have really had a hard time," says Cheong-Thong. The thinning out has, however, had the unexpected benefit of improving production standards, and slowly sake's popularity is rebounding as more premium examples appear, in which history meets modern brewing techniques.Though sake is a drink steeped in ancient Japanese tradition and history, it’s a category that’s not always easily understood outside of Japan. Fortunately, quality, craftsmanship and taste are universal – and Akashi-Tai places all of these at the forefront of its production to create elegant, balanced but characterful sakes. Keeping tradition alive Polishing is perhaps the key step in defining what kind of sake gets made. It involves stripping away each rice grain's outer husk to reduce down the amount of protein and fat available for fermentation and thus shorten the brewing process. year old Hakutsuru is one of the largest if not the largest sake brewery in Japan. It’s located in Nada area famous for its excellent water and produces a wide range of sake, umeshu and other drinks. Helpful as these categories are, they offer only a vague sense of the breadth and variety available, even within each category. The only way to really find out what you like is to taste broadly and see what lights up your palette. Again, I tried the sake at various temperatures and room to warm were the best in my opinion. Jidai has a deep and rich taste and high acidity, especially when you drink it chilled or at room temperature. However, the higher you heat it up, the more mellow it becomes.

Located in Hyogo prefecture, Akashi-Tai is a small craft brewery making beside sake Hatozaki whiskey and 135°East gin at its Kaikyo distiller. Despite its modest size, the brewery has a very good presence in the UK. The texture becomes creamier and almost velvety with a very luxurious feel. The acidity softens and some sweetness appears. Jidai Yamahai Junmai Ginjo has a long and lavish finish and holds acidity at a higher temperature pretty well. Since then, Akashi have taken pride in brewing sakes with the choicest ingredients, that are more often than not produced locally. The brewery’s proximity to the coast and their insistence of tanks with Japanese cedar wood lids leads to sea air impacting the flavour of Akashi-Tai sakes with a slightly salty and particular character. The key ingredient, however, is the yamada-nishiki variety of rice. Known as a superior strain, it’s native to the region just north of Akashi, and considered for sake production above all else because its starch molecules are loosely grouped. This allows koji mold spores to easily enter the structure, and produce superior koji and malted rice.Akashi-Tai Honjozo sake is made to be slightly lighter in style than their other types of sake, using high quality rice and a small amount of brewers alcohol to create a crisp, dry and easy to drink sake. The most interesting part of the sake’s name is “kijoshu”, which refers to a special brewing technique when instead of water a brewer adds sake to the fermenting mash at the final stage. It gives the resulted sake a luxurious feel, deep flavour and distinctive viscosity. Normally, kijoshu sake is very sweet, but not in the case of Kanpai Tsuki, which is rather dry. Akashi-Tai Honjozo Sake, is a medium-bodied sake with hints of citrus and straw, this is the drink the brew masters reach for at the end of a working day An innovative sparkling sake from Akashi-Tai. Naturally fermented in the bottle to preserve the zesty, fruity character of freshly brewed sake.