My Sake Story

Hello Sake Lovers,

It's been a busy year. Cultivating Sake Awareness is no easy fight, but it gives me the strength to continue to drive me forward.

On top of sake events and education classes, I am building up a youtube channel; I hope this will be an excellent source for lovers a-like in seeking knowledge about the sake world in the simplest way possible.

So for this blog entry, I would share my story on how I started. For any sake professional, it always starts with one particular sake bottle which draws you in and sticks with you.

Let me share the sake bottle that started it, which made things happen and became a turning point only after I decided to open the bottle.

Sawahime Yamahai
Category: Junmai
Rice: Hitogokochi
Semuaibai : 65%
Alc: 16%
Prefecture: Tochigi

So one glorious day, I decided to open the bottle and find out everything I needed to know about the Sake. At first sip, I was not too fond of it, but my purpose was not to like it; I aimed to find out why. I wanted to stimulate myself as a customer if somebody recommends me Sake; what happens if I don't like it? I just spent $60. Are you going to throw away $60 on something you just brought because you don't like it? No right?

But does anybody ever question themselves why they didn't like it? I didn't think so, but I did and did with every single sake bottle in my shop and stored that in memory.

Sawahime Yamahai did open up the understanding and awareness that there were different drinkers' styles, which astounded me because I never realize there were various drinkers in the drinking world. From my findings
Drinkers like Wine categories & Sake categories which divides into groups:
Sweet drinkers
Dry drinkers
Smooth Drinkers
All rounded drinkers

This discovery made it so much easier to promote Sake to customers once I knew what kind of drinker they were, making the experience more genuine and trustworthy to the customer who has either had a bad experience with Sake or never had one before. Have you had a real sake experience that you understood? Share your story.
So the Sake in question, let me introduce you. If you have ever come across any of the ranges, do seek it out! The Master Brewer name is Mr. Hiroshi Inoue from下野地酒 澤姫my mentor over the past 13 years.
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Sake Lovers in Perth are already familiar with this is sake brand as Master Brewer always comes for a yearly visit. Master Hiroshi Inoue is a 5th generation owner/brewer using only produce( rice, yeast, water) from Tochigi. He aims to showcase the splendor of Tochigi and work for hand in hand with local farmers to help improve the quality of their crops.
Master Hiroshi always welcomes his Australian fans, so if you around Tokyo and got time to spare, head down to visit him. You might get an exclusive tour. 
http://sawahime.co.jp/
Sawahime in Japanese translates as 'princess', as the master treats his Sake like a princess. The meaning goes deeper and comes from the desire to "make sake that is loved by the region" .The character "Sawa" was taken from the local place name Shirasawa, and combined the character "Princess", which is a symbol loved there, to "Sawahime" 
Yamahai is a traditional method and style of Sake. Yamahai are used as yeast starter to create a slow and laborious way that allowed more wild yeasts and bacteria for a limited of time to be part of the brew creating a lactic environment.
Yamahai is richer, bolder, and somewhat creamier with funkier and gamy characteristics, which may be complicated but intriguing to the palate to make you think.

​I like to enjoy Sawahime Yamahai at room semi temperature the lovely smooth full flavor of the yeast starter, the true flavour of Junmai.
Cool it up enough gives me a crisp bite to stimulate my taste buds and think about pairing.My most favorite pairings are BBQ meats. The richer and full flavour the Sake is, the more I think about heavier and fattier meats. Who doesn't love tasty fats? Without feeling guilty! Hahaha try with Sawahime Yamahai! Guilty pleasures.
Do you have a story about your sake bottle? Share if you do.