Few days back was the
presentation of the new sake menu; during this event the General consul of Japan
Hiroyuki Makiuchi, along with his spouse, were the guests of honor.
The sommelier Roger Ortuño,
ambassador of the Japanese gastronomy among other titles, is the author of the
prestigious blog: Comer Japones.
He gave us a master class on
the different sakes, the making, the different rices used for each sake, the
process of fermentation… He explained us that sake wasn’t a distilled liquor
but a fermentation of rice in different steps. And for people like who thought didn’t like
sake we learned how to understand it and loving it. There are dry ones, sweeter
ones with floral notes, sparkling ones…
This event started with a
beautiful ancient tradition ceremony, the Kagami Viraki which consist to break
the barrel full of sake with a hammer.
The basic types of sake, in
order of increasing quality, complexity and price are:
-honjozo-shu with a slight
addition of distilled alcohol. Distilled alcohol helps to extract some flavors
of the bran.
-junmai-shu literally
"pure rice wine" made from rice only. By the early 90's, the Japanese
government established that at least 30% is removed from the polished rice and
the drink without alcohol, so that it was considered Junmai sake. Today this
can be applied to any sake milled which contains no additives or distilled alcohol.
-ginjo-shu, with a
percentageof 30 to 50% of removal of polished rice.
-daiginjo-shu with 50-70%
polished rice removed.
-Junmai Daiginjo-shu is made
without added alcohol.
After the master class I
became : “ I don’t have sake” to “ I love sake” – in Spanish “sake no tomo”
means Sake I don’t have ; but in Japanese SAKENOTOMO means I love sake! We got
to try the 10 different varieties of
sake that makes the new sake menu at Shibui. Don’t miss this opportunity!
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| The consul, his wife, Roger Ortuño & Candido Martinez - director of Shibui. Breaking the barrel of sake. |
