Aramasa Junmai [1 Koku - 34]

Aramasa from Akita Prefecture. The name can be, and used to be read as "Shinsei", but the current reading has the oh-so-glamorous meaning, "New Moral Administration." Doesn't that just grab you? 160 years and 7 generations of family management, and that's the best they could do?

Aramasa brews their sake with association yeast #6, which was apparently first isolated at this brewery itself, and is allegedly the oldest cultured yeast in use today. There does seem to be some conflicting information out there on this yeast though - you may read that #6 yeast is not widely used due to high acidity, yet Aramasa's own website explains that the yeast produces a "strong classical taste" (which they describe as mild), and with "low acidity." Once again, sake is everything, and it is nothing at all. Love it!

Not sure of the rice or the milling, but SMV +3, acidity 1.6, and 15.5% abv. Nutty sweet nose, acidity is bright, savoury, sweet butterscotch tones, roasted rice, nutty, plenty of presence, and a drying bitter finish. Not sure if this is a little bit old or warmly kept - bottled in April, it does look a bit yellow and touched by age. But given the backstory, maybe this is what they are going for? I think it quite nice, but R. found it all a bit much.


And just so the world knows, when Madam decides she wants sake, she takes sake. When Madam decides it's cold out, she takes my puffy jacket. When those two worlds intersect, this is what it looks like. Perhaps if she'd taken her own jacket, she may have enjoyed this a touch more.