Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/314991
72 { THE SOMM JOURNAL } JUNE/JULY 2014 "Interest in saké has been growing steadily," says Izumi Motai, Marketing Manager for Takara Sake USA. "The more we eat sushi, the more the quality of the saké we drink will improve," he says, pointing out the not-so- tenuous connection between the increasingly discriminating taste in the food we eat and the beverages that accompany them. "Who knows," he says laughing, "maybe drinking better saké will even improve the quality of the sushi." Still, saké in the U.S. is shrouded with as many misconceptions as wine once was— when we were still sucking down Chianti in woven baskets and California still made "Chablis." The sad tradition of heating saké to oblivion and dropping shots in the bottom of a beer, started not out of ignorance exactly, but because most of the saké coming to the country early-on was of low quality—more like jet fuel than anything resembling the highly nuanced, food-friendly beverage the Japanese have been sipping for centuries. But companies like Takara are trying to change that. At their tasting room in Berkeley, CA, guests are educated on the painstaking method of farming, milling and fermenta- tion—here, they are taught that, like wine, it all begins with the land. Terroir—the quality of the soil, the varieties, the weather, the purity of the water, the cul- tural heritage that drives it—is just as relevant a notion for saké as it is for wine. Rice used for saké has as much in common with the stuff we Rice being steamed at Miyashita Saké Brewery, Okayama. PHOTO COPYRIGHT©TONY MCNICOL In Search of Terroir, Saké Brewers Look both Forward and Back Somm Journal June/July.indd 72 5/9/14 12:10 PM