Joto Sake Brewers at Matsuri

There was a wonderful tasting this week held at Matsuri Restaurant in Chelsea featuring the delicious sakes of Joto Sake. What made this event especially exciting was the presence of four of Joto sake brewers!

When people ask me what they should do to learn more about sake, I always respond “meet the brewers!”. Talking one-on-one with the people who actually make sake is a fantastic way to learn, experience and taste this magical drink. We’re so lucky in New York City to have many tasting and sake events with sake Brewers in attendance.

This Joto event is a prime example. There were four brewers on hand to introduce sake from their respective breweries. Also, at this event, the brewers brought along food specialties from their area of Japan.

Fukumoto-san from Kasumitsuru Brewery brought his sakes along with his fall nama known as a “hiyaoroshi”. As a matter of fact, all brewers had their special fall nama with them. Delicious! Fukumoto-san also had dried squid, a specialty from Hyogo prefecture.

Next, I met up with Tomita-san from Shichihonyari brewery. I was lucky enough to visit Tomita-san’s beautiful brewery in 2008. Tomita-san is one cool dude and he had his famous Shizuku drip sake and also the renouned Shichihonyari Junami on hand to try. They also offered their Hiyaoroshi which was only milled to 80% and a rough and ready taste of pure autumnal sake goodness.

The sakes of Akita are well known and one star from that region is the Yukinobosha brand made by Saito Brewery. Saito-san was also in attendance and pouring several of his über-delicious brews. Their enchanting Akita Komachi Daiginjo caught my attention yet again – what a wonderful sake! Elegant, smooth and silky. Of course, the lone nigori of the night was the fantastic Yukinobosha nigori. yum

Last but not least, the brewers from Eiko Fuji presented some fantastic stuff. I had a sip of their delicious fall nama, as well as a unique Ume-shu or plum sake. It was lightly sweet, full of elegant plum flavor and not too overpowering – a real surprise! I also enjoyed one of my favorite Namas of all time – the Eiko Fuji nama! Just delicious and produced year round.

This tasting was a home run in so many ways! great sake, great education and great location. And with an admission price of $20, you cannot beat the price. If you want to be alerted to future events, please subscribe to the UrbanSake.com Events RSS feed! I list all sake events I hear of and I hope to see you at the next sake tasting!