ive recently compiled a Sake Guide that i think people might find useful. i read and talked to a few sake experts & websites, and put it into one web page, and one easy-to-use PDF for printing (i bring it to the store w/ me). its here:
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...the site is something i put together. im not a sake or sushi professional, just a guy w/ an interest. if you like it, great! if not, just dont blast me for trying on my own dime.
i have a few other guides on there too. Sushi-Review.com is a user-powered global directory that lets you can write your own reviews for sushi joints in your area, rank them, etc. (if it runs a little slow, thank DataPacket.net, my lame hosting company. gonna move it soon)
BLAST YOU! How DARE you put up something that can be disagreed with by aimless passers-by, and so on and so forth.
By the way, you oughta check out Guantner-sama's site:
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They have a monthly letter, opportunities to actually buy the stuff and so on.
Just got back from Japan and actually got to play a formal game of Niigata vs Iwate.
I had heard that Niigata and Morioka as the respective capitals of these two prefectures had long had a rivalry over whose sake is better. Niigata says it's all about water, and theirs is the best. Iwate says it more about rice and theirs is better. Maybe I have the components switched. Apparently nobody is touting themselves as the koji masters, I don't know.
Anyway, two years ago in Morioka I kept saying, "I hear Niigata's sakes are really good, you have any of that?" At which point that would bring out their best Iwate-ken sake so I could check how superior theirs was to that crap from Niigata. The sake was unbelievable by the way. I've never been to Niigata but intend to try the ruse there.
So last week I'm in a joint in Shinjuku and have been introduced to a guy and when he says he's from Niigata (actually a mountain town nearby--even better), I realize I'm sitting with two sake-drinkers countrmen from opposing sides! So I throw out the wedge issue and sure enough they are on it like white on highly-polished rice!
So I managed to try at least 4 killer sakes while they snorted about clarity and maturity and "seriousness" and such. Eventually it disintegrated into carping that the sake wasn't the issue, it was a matter of what the sake bar had--not enough--that made the gambit a draw. If only the GOOD stuff from their respective prefectures had been stocked then the obvious winner could be named.
The only ones I remember off the top of my head (I think I have others scribbled down that we didn't try) is Hakai-san from Niigata and Nanbu Bigin from Morioka. These are apparently more easily acquired. Both are fabulous.
hah...but you must know i wouldnt put that there if it hadnt been done already -- when i was dong the graphics for the site i popped into a japanese language group, and they began firing the torpedoes on my little project... harping on (initially) incorrect symbols, critizing my copy style, etc.. and they werent even in japan -- scholars, go figure!
is that the url? looks like a domain-camper page.
excellent!!
of course! the bottles that got away... thats an amazing story, wish i coulda seen them square off.
thanks for the tip. heres a write up on the nanbu folks:
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might Hakai-san be the same as Hakkaisan? quite a bit online.
is Guantner's with a monthly newsletter for subscribers.
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is the one that also offers for sale.
I'm sure that's true. I didn't see a spelling for it. And I actualy misspelled what I thought was the other. I thought it was actually Nambu Bijin. Whatever: close enough for a sake head.
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