Back in January across two weekends, the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers Association hosted the second iteration of the Sake Future Summit. (The first was held back in 2020). For those that missed it, now is as good of a time as ever to catch up!

There were a handful of sessions conducted in Japanese (with English subtitles) that will require you to set aside a bit of time to read along. These include programs on, “Cutting Edge Sake & Food Pairing” with Marie Chiba (EUREKA!) and Hitoshi Utsunomiya (JSS),  “Challenging Tradition & Innovation”” with Choubei Yamamoto (Kaze no Mori) and Norimasa Yamamoto (KID), “Shochu as a Global Beverage” with Julia Momose (Bar Kumiko), Shuzo Nagumo (Spirits & Sharing), and Marico Kojima (JSS), and plenty more.

While the above programs will be infinitely tied to YouTube for most of our listeners, there were also a handful of thoughtful sessions conducted entirely in English. For those that find podcasts to be a more enjoyable way to absorb their sake and shochu info, we’ve decided to compile a handful of these into the good ol’ standard podcast format for your listening pleasure.

This week we bring you the session that kicked off this year’s Sake Future Summit, “The Global Transformation of Sake”, featuring Monica Samuels (Vine Connections/Kome Collective), Lorenzo Ferraboschi (Sake Company), and Hugo Chan (Sake Central), mediated by your regular SOA host, Justin Potts.If you finish up this show and are eager to dive into more sake and shochu-related discussion, you can head over to the for all of these sessions, and more. At the same time, if you’re looking for updates @sakeonair, you can follow us on , , and . Don’t hesitate to also share any other sake or shochu-related thoughts with the hosts at and rate us on the podcast service of your choice while you’re at it.We’ll be back very soon with plenty more Sake On Air before you know it.Until then, !