HOW JAPANESE IS SAKE?
weddings, ground-breaking ceremonies (jichinsai),
opening ceremonies (perhaps a new store), victory
celebrations (after a sports match or local election),
new year, coming of age; all these are celebrated
with sake. Better known, in the west, is the Japanese
fascination with cherry blossom, and the ‘hanami’
(cherry blossom viewing) is another event where
sake is inevitably drunk. Autumn moon viewing,
and even snow-viewing, are less well-known, but
sake is equally integral to both. This is a point
of difference between Japan and other countries.
Many cultures use drinks for celebration, ceremony,
religious ritual, and in association with specific
occasions. Champagne, wine, whisky and tea are
good examples here. Nowhere, however, is there
such a fundamental connection between a single
drink and the spiritual and practical functioning
of a country. Sake is evidently a special part of
Japanese culture.
But what about the liquid in the bottle? How
Japanese is that? Sake brewing depends on pure,
soft water, and it’s delightful to think we are
sipping from a snow-fed mountain stream when we
drink it. The sticking point, of course, is alcoholadded sake. This highly misunderstood category
contains ‘brewers’ alcohol’ (up to 10% by weight
of the original quantity of rice). ‘Brewers’ or ‘jozo
alcohol’, however, is not entirely Japanese. Made
from molasses or grains, it is generally imported
from South America and then further processed in
Japan. In the hands of Japanese distillers it reaches
a very high level of purity, producing a clear, almost
flavourless spirit of typically 95% alcohol. Perhaps
it is because of this extra distillation in Japan that
the origin of jozo-alcohol doesn’t bother anyone.
Prejudice against alcohol-added sake is quite
common, but is mainly based on a perceived lack
of ‘purity’ (i.e. the perception that Junmai sake is
purely made from rice, and therefore better), not a
lack of ‘Japaneseness’. Either way, it’s a pity because
alcohol-added sake can be delightful: fragrant, elegant,
light and often dry, with beautifully lifted aromas.
Japan is not even the only place where sake is made.
There is a long history of sake-brewing in America,
where Japanese settlers, and subsequently large
Japanese brewery companies used locally grown
rice to make affordable sake. Importing Japanese
sake is never a cheap process, and moving
production close to the site of consumption
was a cost effective decision. As a
result, sake is much more widely
drunk in America than in sake’s
other export markets. Until
now, most Americanproduced sake has been
Japanese in character,
if not in content.
Japanese-owned
b re w e r i e s h a v e
made sake which
has largely been
drunk in Japanese
restaurants,
with very little
dilution of the
cultural image of
the drink. That
is beginning to
change, however.
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