Sunflower Club Monthly Archives
Sunflower Sake Club, March 2024:The Great Old Ones The earliest mentions of sake come from the ancient texts the Kojiki ~(711 AD) and the Nihon Shoki (720), which chronicle sake’s place in mythology as well as Imperial courts, ritual, and...
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SUNFLOWER SAKE CLUB: JULY 2024PIRATES, NATSUZAKE, NOMIKIRI & BY Natsuzake, Summer sake, has begun to arrive in the US. In Japan, these seasonal bottles hit the shelves by early May (we tried several during our mid-May visit) and sell out...
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“Making the Fermentation Starter,” "Nihon Sankai Meisan Zue" 日本山海名産圖會 ( 日本山海名産図会 ), 1799 Gozenshu Bodaimoto Junmai Nigori Genshu Talk to any sake nerd (Japan or US) about Okayama and they’ll mention two things: Omachi rice and Gozenshu. In Japan, industry...
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Dinner & impromptu griddle-top kanzake with new friends at Love Song Okonomiyaki, Okayama City Sunflower Sake Club, June 2024: Okayama This month’s theme, loosely, is Okayama– treasures from Okayama, I suppose– featuring two very different but highly representative sake. The...
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Yutaka Furusawa is a classically trained Echigo Guild toji. His style is clean, dry on the finish, with a robust core. Everything in the brewery is old, recalling the era when Matsunoi produced bulk sake under contract for big breweries, or a decade ago when his late brother was toji, and Matsunoi drew accolades for a string of national competition trophies. A melancholy lingers behind the sense of humor and duty.