Now this is what I call a sake line-up.
Four bottles, all from the same brewery: Aramasa in Akita;all produced in the same season: 2011/12;
all brewed and bottled exactly the same way: as junmai ginjo nama arabashiri;
all identical except each was brewed with different sakamai rice.
From right to left: Misato-nishiki (green); Miyama-nishiki (blue); Sake-komachi (white); and Kairyo-shinko (pink, but actually called momo "peach"). The last of those is a strain of rice that — to the best of my knowledge — I've never come across before.
And presented side by side (literally) like this, you can really taste the difference. And the similarities. All have plenty of rich umami, but varying positions on the sweet/sharp range.
Quite a line-up indeed.
But I'd expect nothing less at Kamozou in Kagurazaka. Kudos to manager Yamashita-san !
In case you missed it, this was my write-up in my Japan Times column...
