Blogs

Japan and its sake breweries are no strangers to natural disaster. One extreme example is the tight cluster of breweries around the famed “Miyamizu” hard water source in the historical sake brewing area of Nada (modern-day Kobe), which were destroyed by the Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995. Another is the breweries scattered along the east …

Anyone reading this has probably explained – or had explained to them – how sake is made at some point, and it usually goes something like the pithy line from the Kanpai Brewery in London: “brewed like a beer and enjoyed like a wine”. I never saw an explanation that didn’t refer to beer brewing, …

Exports are steadily climbing and more people are beginning to understand what it is, but sake still has a way to go before it can solidify its place alongside other popular drinks categories outside Japan. How to get it there is the million-dollar question. One strategy the sake industry has been proactively pursuing for many …

Insight into a soon-to-be-released interview with David Joll of Zenkuro and Matt Kingsley-Shaw of soon-to-be Melbourne Sake.

Announcing 1-year anniversary celebration of Sake On Air.

Upcoming sake & shochu events at the Japan Sake and Shochu Information Center! (Oct-Nov 2019)

Across a pair of recent episodes of Sake On Air, Wolfgang Angyal, CEO of the Riedel company in Japan, has prepared a brilliant workshop, an opportunity to understand Riedel’s methodology for devising and determining the shape of a glass vessel, as well as sample a selection of sake in Riedel glasses (wine glass, daiginjo glass, …

On a recent overseas sake promotion project guiding wine experts around breweries in Japan, one term that popped up more times than I care to remember was terroir. Not from the wine experts, but from the breweries, who were using it in their marketing spiel. However, what I later learned from the feedback of the …