Wine Tasting, Vineyards, in France: Sake tasting in Paris

Gael Segear & Yuko Kuwahara

Paris, 3rd arrondissement
This tasting event took place in a private appartment in Paris. It was the initiative of Yuko Kuwahara (picture above, right), who visited from Japan and works for the non-profit Association of Pure Sake Promoters of Japan. This group is dedicated to promote sake made without dilution or alcohol and other additions, like it was the norm before WW2. She was helped by Gael Segear, her partner and passionate sake Amateur. Both met in 2013 and he embarked on this pure sake crusade for the revival of nihonshu.

Mrs Kuwahara begins with explaining how sake changed during the 20th century from a traditional fermented beverage made from rice to a drink with lots of additions, original nihonshu making a 3rd of the volume of a bottle and the rest being addition of alcohol or non-rice component. This all started in WW2 as rice had become a rare commodity because of the war needs and constraints on agriculture, the missing rice and its related fermented liquid were replaced by other products and alcohol, and after the war was over, these new, alternative sake-making recipes remained because I guess it was cheaper and convenient for the commercial breweries. But Yoko-san says that the Japanese were beginning to be tired of this sake, they didn't like the way it tasted and were longing for a revival of the true sake, the one made with only rice and water, which is called Junmai-shu in Japan. This story mirrors strangely what has been going on in wine-producing countries and particularly France, even though the additives here were of different nature, the thing is that amateurs on both sides of the beverage world were tired from what technology has concocted and were longing for the real thing.

The sake that she offered us to taste while eating that evening are very traditional, Yuko says, they are all Junmai-shu but each of them is different. In the midst of the dining experience, I didn't really taste individually each of these sakes, so I will just post a picture of what we had that evening.
The Pure Sake group has 8 members, all of course sake breweries that make Junmai-shu sake, that is sake made of rice and water and no other addition, but we would taste only one brewery that evening, Shinkame Shuzo, which was the initiator of this pure-sake movement in 1987 by switching to a 100 % production of pure sake in its facility. From what I understand many of these sake have a minimum of two years maturation time at room temperature, giving them a character of their own.

Hot-water jugs to keep sake warm We had all the different sake at warm temperature, and I was impressed by the sleek hot-water jugs used for that purpose. I tend to keep a humble profile when we discuss the topic of tasting temperature because I'm told by experienced sake amateurs that warm temperature is fit for good sake but deep inside I'm an unrepentant amateur of sake at room temperature.

We were maybe a dozen people that evening and we had the opportunity to taste these sakes with all sort of dishes, some authenticly Japanese (Yuko had prepared a terrific Nabe) and others very French and charcuterie oriented, there was even foie gras, a dish that paired perfectly with the Junmai Dai-Ginjo. There was also a very atypical sake, which was 30 years old (last pic), with almost Jura aromatic notes.