Word: sakes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Many young people in Japan feel as I did, which is why the sake business is struggling. Beer is by far the favored drink, accounting for half of domestic sales of alcoholic drinks. Sake makes up just 9%, down from 17% a decade ago. Active sake breweries, or kura, have dwindled to about 1,200, from 3,500 or so in 1970. It would seem that despite a passionate marriage that historians date back to 3 B.C., the love between Japan and sake is fading...
...there is still a spark. Like kimonos and Godzilla, sake is too much ingrained in the culture to be entirely forgotten. Major sakemakers are targeting new markets, such as young women, with innovative products and sales pitches. A change in the tax laws has encouraged small and midsize kura to produce more profitable, premium sake, a move that has ignited the current fad for jizake, or local sake. And kura big and small see potential abroad, where a sake boom has stepped up demand. Despite its troubles--or perhaps because of them--the industry is producing its best sake ever...
Suigei, my family's sake, brewed in the southern city of Kochi, embodies the trend. Like many brands, its name evokes local flavor: Suigei was the pseudonym of a sake-loving, Edo-era lord and means "drunken whale." Though production has not increased much in its kura, built in 1872, Suigei has nevertheless increased revenues 30% over the past decade by concentrating on quality sake. Shigeji Ishimoto, the brewery head, says top-grade daiginjo and ginjo sake account for 75% of Suigei's $6.3 million in sales, up from almost nothing when my grandfather bought it in 1968. Last year...
Much of the credit belongs to Kyoji Doi, the toji, or sake brewmaster, a proud member of a dwindling breed. "In the olden days, the eldest sons of farmers made sake after the harvest," explains Doi, 63. Straight out of high school, he followed his father into his vocation. "But my son," he says with a rueful, gap-toothed smile, "he's a salaryman...
Suigei's kura is chilly and dark and reeks sweetly of fermenting rice. The first step in the sakemaking process is the milling and polishing of rice. The more it is polished, the higher the grade of sake. In Suigei's top-grade daiginjo, each grain of famed Yamada nishiki rice is polished until just 30% remains. The rice is then washed and soaked in giant tanks, and poured into vats for steaming...