Wakatake Daijingo Onikoroshi Sake
Web: Wakatake Daijingo Onikoroshi Sake
Phone: 0547-37-3058
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Alcohol Drinks Japanese Sake

"Of the many sakes we've sampled, our very favorite is Wakatake's Daiginjo Onikoroshi Sake, which we've recently found locally in 720ml bottles at Premier Group for $34-$44."

How much do we love sake? We keep a good bottle around. We sealed our wedding vows with one. And we even named one of our dogs after the Japanese rice wine, years before it began to climb in popularity in the United States. So while we won't claim to be sake sommeliers or true experts - there are over 2,000 brewers in Japan alone, each with different recipes - we wanted to share a couple of shortcuts to help you actually get a good bottle or two.

First, the basics. According to the Japan Sake Brewers Association, sake is a 2,000-year-old drink; note that it is pronounced "sah-kay," not "sah-kee." It generally falls into the 13-16% alcohol content range and is made from rice, water, yeast, and a fermentation agent called koji, each element of which is tweaked in some way by the aforementioned 2,000 brewers to create different flavors. Take special note of the fact - little understood outside of Japan - that sake is rated based on its rice content, with superior rice milling, a polishing process, leading to better grades of sake.

The highest grade of sake is Daiginjo, where the rice has been polished to the point that 50% or more of its outer shell has been removed. Milling, as explained by Sake-World.com, removes unwanted flavors and aromas in brewing by reducing the fats, proteins, and amino acids that naturally occur in tice. By comparison, Ginjo sake has between 51-60% of its outer shell, and Junmai or Honjozo sake has between 61-70% of its outer shell intact. Sometimes, you'll see the word Junmai before Ginjo or Daiginjo; don't worry, this doesn't mean that they've mixed the lower-grade Junmai with a higher grade Ginjo or Daiginjo. It's actually a good thing: Junmai Ginjo and Junmai Daiginjo sakes are exactly as originally fermented, without additional alcohol added afterwards; plain Ginjo and Daiginjo sakes have had alcohols added in the late stages of brewing to enhance their flavor. Yet another form of sake, Nigori sake, looks sort of like thin rice porridge, with small pieces of rice suspended in the liquid; it's very different in texture and flavor from the others.

There are other grades of sake, but it suffices to say that the comparatively expensive Daiginjo grade generally has the cleanest, smoothest texture of the group, with the lowest likelihood of making your tongue feel like it's puffy or covered in rice dust when you're done. In our experience, a Daiginjo has the highest chance of impressing a first- or second-time taster; there are, of course, exceptions.

If you've tried sake before and disliked it, we're not surprised. Most of what's served in U.S. restaurants, especially to customers unfamiliar with these filtering grades, is the lower-end sake that leaves a lot of particle texture and aftertaste on your tongue. Sake makers knew that this would turn people off, and in a less advanced age of filtering, the drink used to be served warm, as impurities are less obvious in hot beverages than cold ones. Today, sake can be ordered hot or chilled; the problems start when you get a cold cup of the lower-grade stuff, which can be a real turn-off. At restaurants, it is often served in a small bottle with a shotglass-sized drinking cup, in a 180-milliliter box called a masu, or occasionally, in a small cup inside a masu box. Traditionally, the sake is placed into the cup until it overflows as a sign of generosity; the box can be used to catch the overflow.

Of the many sakes we've sampled, our very favorite is Wakatake's Daiginjo Onikoroshi Sake, a wine with 16-17% alcohol content that we've recently found locally in 720ml bottles at Premier Group stores for $34-$44. We're happy to have actually helped, in some small way, to boost this sake's popularity in the United States: back a couple of years ago, we wrote a paragraph about it for men's magazine Uncrate, and have since discovered our words as advertising text for the bottles at various online retailers. The text in question:

"Want to drink like a Japanese gangster? Japan's Sake wines are rated by purity, and Wakatake's Daiginjo-rated Onikoroshi ($30/720ml) is one of the purest and craziest available. Though there are many Onikoroshi ("Demon Killer") sakes out there, this particular one is guaranteed to have you slouched and fuming spicy vapors after only a single glass. Just make sure you get the right brand — it won't taste quite the same unless it's Wakatake Daiginjo Onikoroshi."

This single paragraph quickly notes a few important things: the purity issue, the slightly spicy "Onikoroshi" (also known as Onigoroshi) sub-genre of sakes, and the fact that buying a different brand or different grade will actually make a difference in taste. If you want to make a direct comparison for yourself, Wakatake actually sells a cheaper, black-labeled bottle called Wakatake Ginjo Onikoroshi Sake, which is also available from Premier stores. This version contains 14-15% alcohol and sells locally in 300ml bottles for $15 each. Comparing the Ginjo to the Daiginjo is like comparing a stealthy ninja to a powerful samurai; the smoothness and immediately appealing taste of the more expensive version are found in part in the less expensive one, yet it's hard to say that the Ginjo would stand out if we hadn't already tried its better brother. While the flavors are similar, the strong, surprising kick of the more expensive "demon killer" is gone, leaving the sweeter, more subtle essence of the Wakatake brew to slice away at your brain cells. Our suggestion would be to go with the Daiginjo; it's definitely better, and given the prices, you get less than half the sake in the 300ml Ginjo version for a little under half the cost. But after a few drinks, you may well find that the Ginjo is good enough.

There are other fun Sakes, too. Gold-flaked sakes are, like other gold-flaked alcohols, gimmicky, but it's a gimmick that works. We picked up Bunraku Kinmai, a 14-15% alcohol, 300ml bottle of Junmai Ginjo sake that's shaped like a potion vial and sold for around $17 at Premier Group stores; it's more than dusted with pieces of edible gold leaf. While the sake isn't extraordinary, it's a fair representation of the junmai ginjo category, and the appearance of the gold leaf pieces in the clear sake alone is enough to make this worth trying at least once. The flavor is more than a little sweet, reasonably smooth, and inoffensive in aftertaste. We'd buy it again for special occasions.

Picking a sake based on looks isn't a great idea. The beautiful blue-bottled 300ml "Aladdin Bottle" of Junmai-grade, 15-16% alcohol sake from Fukushima prefecture sells for only $8, and immediately caught our attention as we were shopping for a sake to drink during our wedding ceremony. It was a great prop to have on the table in front of our friends and family, and we still keep the bottle at home. But neither of us actually enjoyed the taste: bitter, coarse, and comparatively unrefined. It's easy to get hooked into buying cool-looking sake bottles, but the truth is that many of the really good ones are in plain bottles with entirely Japanese-language labels. Stick to our recommendations or do additional research online before dropping any serious cash on something that you might be turned off by.