Regarding the recent push to make sparkling sake via the traditional method, Mikey Gower, sake sommelier and head bartender at NYC-based SakaMai and Tsukimi, writes in an email, “I think this is how the best examples will be made in the future, and once more aging is introduced to production, the results will be magic.” Although not all sparkling sakes meet the Awa Association’s precise standards, many are following the traditional method.
Hakkaisan Awa Clear Sparkling Sake, for example, is featured on Auburn’s modern tasting menu featuring upscale California cuisine. A bottle of Haikkasan, one of the nine brewers that founded the Japan Awasake Association. This is a new approach, a new production method, and something that is on a whole different level as far as quality is concerned,” Sullivan says. “I think the ‘Awa’ Association is necessary to alert customers that this is something different. Hakkaisan is a founding member of the Japan Awasake Association. “That opens up to pairing with anything on the raw bar, crab legs, or oyster on the half shell,” Sullivan, who also represents Hakkaisan Brewery of Japan’s Niigata prefecture, says. Timothy Sullivan, a “Sake Samurai” and the founder of online resource UrbanSake, says these premium sakes are typically made in a brut style with “no sugar added, very low acidity, and, in general, have a higher amino acid, or umami profile than you would get in a sparkling wine.” This technique delivers super-fine bubbles and a more complex product overall. This approach is driving quality sparkling sake forward. The third option is identical to the traditional method of making Champagne (méthode champenoise), involving adding a small amount of lees (yeast cells) to the sake before bottling to induce a second fermentation. This process results in sake that is sweeter and more lightly effervescent than full-on fizzy. The most common and cost-effective technique involves injecting the liquid with carbon dioxide (many less expensive wines are carbonated this way).Īnother approach, known as the “ tank method,” involves trapping naturally occurring carbon dioxide so that it dissolves into the sake. To create a sparkling sake, a brewer chooses between three methods of adding carbonation. However, like grape wine, sake can be sparkling, too. A collection of sparking sakes for tasting.Īlthough sake production actually shares more in common with beer, sake is a still beverage often referred to as “rice wine,” with fans of wine drawn to its fruity aromas and silky mouthfeel. Traditionally found in izakayas (Japanese bars), the beverage offers a range of flavors, making it an attractive accompaniment to food. Nihonshu, meaning “Japanese liquor,” or sake as it is referred to in English, is an alcohol made from fermented rice that has been a staple of Japanese culture for centuries. (In the past, sparkling sakes have been known to be bottom-shelf, overly sweet sparklers, often marketed toward women.) Taking its name from “awa,” a Japanese word that means “bubbles,” the association’s main goal was to distinguish its products from other sparkling sakes on the market by creating a strict “Champagne-style” certification. The Champagne comparison may seem intuitive, but the introduction of the méthode champenoise among sake producers is actually a fairly recent development, thanks in part to the Japan Awasake Association, formed in 2016.
Servers also pour Champagne for guests after sparkling sake so they can compare the two sparkling drinks. Since opening in June 2019, NYC newcomer Tsukimi, a trendy East Village restaurant that offers a modern take on kaiseki, a traditional Japanese multi-course meal, has offered two sparkling sakes on its menu.
Awa yuki sparkling sake drivers#
Its beverage menu includes five sparkling sakes, including Okunomatsu Junmai Premium Sparkling, a sake brewed for Formula Nippon race car drivers so they could spray sparkling sake instead of Champagne at the finish line. Since it opened in 1996, Sakagura has been a pioneer in introducing sake to New Yorkers. Sake has existed for centuries, but its relatively recent popularity in the States is due to supporters like Sakagura, a restaurant in Midtown Manhattan that specializes in Japanese small plates and sake. A glass of sparking sake is perfect on its own or paired with foods. Stateside supporters include sake-serving pioneer Sakagura in New York City, Izanami at the revered Ten Thousand Waves spa in Santa Fe, N.M., and newcomers like Auburn in Los Angeles.
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