Aging Sake - Year 1

One year (+1 week) down in my little aging experiment. To recap, a year ago I set aside a dozen bottles of Jun Tenzan Tokubetsu Junmai to be aged in two groups, the first ("cold") refrigerated at relatively constant temperature of 3°C (37.4°F), the other ("warm") in our passive, below-ground basement wine cellar, where the temperature varies between 13°C (~55.4°F) in the winter and 21°C (~70°F) in the summer.

Saga Saikai No. 134 milled to 60%, SMV +2, acidity 1.8, 15% abv. My tasting note from a year ago: almost paradoxically balanced, being both full and light, clean but with plenty of flavour, sweet with a sour-dry finish. In a word, satisfying.

For the test, both bottles tasted at "cellar temperature". On the right, the "cold" bottle. Nose is mild, lightly sweet, stony and hints of cinnamon. Sweet, clean entry, light weight but building, smooth, soft, lightly cinnamon spiced finish. Cooling, a touch rounder than last year, but still delicious.

On the left, the "warm" bottle - although visually the photo exaggerates a bit, this sake was identifiably more yellow than the "cold". More pronounced cinnamon on the nose than the "cold", rice pudding, hint of caramel. A bit drier on entry, definitely more complex flavour, nutty, savoury, and more starchy as well. Longer finish, a warmer sake.

So, one year in, I'd call this a fairly significant diversion. Should be interesting to see what happens a year on down the road.