The Japanese Sake Bible. Brian Ashcraft
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If you have any doubt about how much respect honjozo deserves, the country’s most famous toji Naohiko Noguchi is famed for his excellent honjozo brews. For the tasting note, see page 221.
Made with Kumamoto yeast, Kouro Ginjo is a classic ginjo sake. Check out the tasting note on page 219.
Not-So-Well-Polished Sake
Before the 1930s, when vertical rice polishing machines were invented, sake rice didn’t have the low polishing ratios achieved today. Milling removes fats and proteins that add flavor to rice. Through the 20th century until now, brewers have pushed polishing ratios lower and lower to isolate the starchy core of the grain known as the shinpaku (lit. “white heart”), which makes for easy koji production. The outer layers of the grain produce more body, but their compounds can be responsible for unwanted off-flavors. On the other hand, they also retain the taste of the rice, making for sake that is rich, heavy and acidic.
The tricky part of making sake with less-polished rice is pulling off the necessary balancing act. Typically, depending on the rice variety, breweries may decide they need to polish the rice more so that the koji spores can work their way into the grain. With softer rice, that might not be necessary, as spores can penetrate even if the grains have been barely polished. Then, the fermentation times and yeast varieties will further affect the final flavors. Just because a sake has a high polishing ratio doesn’t mean it’s low quality or inexpensive; likewise, a low polishing ratio doesn’t always ensure great sake. The barely polished brews are some of the most difficult sakes to make.
Tomita Shuzo, a 460-year-old brewery in Shiga famous for its Shichinoyari brand, has been conducting an interesting experiment. Its award-winning Junmai Wataribune 77% is made with local Wataribune rice, a relative of which was crossbred to make Yamada Nishiki, the top sake rice. Wataribune has been grown in Shiga for over 100 years, but by the 1960s, when Japan’s population was growing rapidly, low-yielding rice like Wataribune was replaced by new easier-to-grow high-yielding varieties, like Koshihikari, Japan’s favorite table rice. “Shiga-grown Wataribune has a large, starchy core, but it’s not clearly defined like Yamada Nishiki,” says Yasunobu Tomita, the brewery’s 15th-generation owner. “Because of that, it’s easy to impart the distinctive character of the rice to the sake.”
Tomita Shuzo, which uses a handful of rice varieties, began brewing with Wataribune in 2008. It’s very soft and not an easy rice to use, apt to pick up more nuka (rice bran) during polishing compared to other rice varieties. Tomita must take extra care while washing to make sure all the clingy bran is gone, to make sure that no off-flavors will emerge during fermentation.
Located in Shiga Prefecture, Tomita Shuzo’s famous brand is Shichihonyari or “Seven Spearsmen,” after the seven heroic leaders in the Battle of Shizugatake, fought nearby in 1583. The brewery, however, is older than that legendary battle. It is located on the Hokkoku Kaido road, an important route frequented by merchants and samurai.
THE BIRTH OF PREMIUM GINJO AND DAIGINJO SAKE
Say “premium sake,” and immediately ginjo leaps to mind. The kanji for gin (吟) in “ginjo” is the same as that in ginjiru, meaning “to chant” or “to recite” as in a poem. However, the “gin” in “ginjo” is actually derived from the word ginmi (吟味), meaning “scrutinize.” For example, ginjo pioneer Kokuryu Sake Brewery in Fukui has long had the motto ginmi shite kamosu or “scrutinize and brew.” The character jo (醸) in “ginjo” is from jozo (醸造), or “brew.”
The word “ginjo” emerged in the late 1800s. Researcher Goro Kishi, who laid the foundation for the quick fermentation starter known as sokujo-moto, first mentioned the term “ginjo” in print with his 1894 book Shuzou no tamoshibi (The lamp of sake brewing). By the end of the century, several dozen breweries were using the “ginjo” designation to denote special competition brews that weren’t for public consumption, iron-branding ginjo on casks to indicate sake “brewed with care.” There were other terms, however, to convey excellence. According to antique expert Alan Scott Pate’s book Kanban: Traditional Shop Signs of Japan, words like gokinjo (superior quality) and daigokinjo (best quality) were also used in Meiji-period advertising to denote excellent sake.
However, that early ginjo sake was quite different from today’s ginjo, which is determined by a polishing ratio of at least 60 percent, which was first codified in 1975 within the sake industry. Later, the Japanese government legally standardized the ginjos in 1990 (along with official definitions for junmai and honjozo). This polishing ratio only became possible after the early 1930s, when high-tech vertical rice-milling machines were developed that could burnish away half the grain. World War II and the ensuing rice shortages, however, slammed the brakes on any further ginjo development. The war, fueled by booze taxes, led to the development and expansion of sake made with additives other than rice. Ginjo was all but forgotten.
During this time, when the emphasis was on quantity over quality, an important discovery was made that was paramount for future ginjo sake. In 1953, the yeast that later became known as association yeast No. 9 was isolated at the Kumamoto Prefecture Sake Research Center; the Brewing Society of Japan began selling the yeast in 1968. No. 9 made modern ginjo possible: its fermentation is robust at low temperatures, which results in a balanced brew with low acidity and signature fruity ginjo aromas of apples and bananas. No wonder the yeast and its derivatives are still widely used for ginjo.
Kokuryu Ginjo Icchorai is made from Gohyakumangoku rice that’s been polished to 55 percent. It’s a pleasant, easy-drinking ginjo with nice astringency, good complexity and subtle floral nuances. The name Kokuryu has become synonymous with ginjo.
According to a 2002 Japan Times article by sake writer John Gauntner, a small Chiba brewery released a ginjo-marketed sake in 1947 under the Fusa Masamune brand. The brewery, Ishino Shoten, isn’t currently operational and phone calls for confirmation went unanswered. “We don’t really know who released the first ginjo to the general public,” says author Jiro Shinoda, Japan’s leading expert on ginjo-shu. In 1958, Hiroshima brewery Kamotsuru released Tokusei [special quality] Gold Kamotsuru labeled with the word daiginzo (大吟造), which means “daigin made,” as the term daiginjo wasn’t yet part of standardized parlance. According to Shinoda, Oita brewery Nishinoseki also released a ginjo koshu aged sake in 1961, but it seems it was sold as a niche product at airports. Ginjo brews weren’t widely sold because the general public had no idea what the word meant. It was an industry term, reserved for sake entered into competitions. “The word ‘ginjo-shu’ wasn’t commonly known until the 1980s,” says Shinoda. Examples of “ginjo” appear in Japanese dictionaries as early as 1935, when the most complete dictionary of the day, Daijiten, defined it as “carefully brewed using selected ingredients.” In the decades that followed, some dictionaries mentioned it, while Kojien, the Japanese dictionary held in highest esteem, did not define the word before1980. Dai Kan-wa Jiten, the most comprehensive postwar kanji dictionary, did not include it in the 1984 edition. In 1975, the year sake production reached its postwar peak, the Japan Sake Makers’ Association released its “Standards for Description of Ingredients and Production Methods.” These labeling and production standards, which were voluntary, defined ginjo-shu, including its polishing ratio. That same year, the Kokuryu Sake Brewery in Fukui released one of the first modern daiginjos, Kokuryu Ginjo Icchorai (icchorai being a local expression for clothing, similar to “one’s Sunday best” in English). It also released Kokuryu Daiginjo Ryu, which