Great to see that you are willing to try different things. Great show..and nice to see the sakes getting the thumbs up....

Cool episode, Gary! Didn't know you were a big sake fan!

QOTD: Otoko-yama! Actually not a big sake fan- I prefer Japanese Shochu (Japan's distilled alcohol) instead, but I recently tried Otoko-yama at an izakaya on St. Marks and it wasn't bad.

How come you don't have a single episode about plum wine? Please consider to taste some of those asian fruit wines.

qotd: I haven't had much sake, but my favorite so far is g. it's from oregon, but I like it. Haven't had any of the super premiums tho.

Finally some sake! Great to learn a bit about it and see your opinion on it. QOTD: I tried my first sake about a month ago and quite enjoyed it, though I cant remember the name of it. Ive got a $25 gift card to Whole Foods and I think Im going to get a a bottle of the good stuff!

Yuki no Bosha junmai daiginjo is my current favorite....Gary, sorry brah your Japanese is horrendous but you rock anyway!

This is after the fact. Sake is great especially with sushi.
I like the creamy colored kind.

Jets have a chance of beating Dallas. This was a pretty safe bet.

QOTD.
A friend's(Helen)Brother(George)traveling back from Japan brought a Sake I tasted that I called "Dangerous" It was soooooo smooth I would have EASILY drunk
the whole bottle right there. That started my love of, and alas my search for
good quality sake. Edmonton Alberta Canada may have GREAT beef, bison, duck
but SAKE???? NOT. I have since requested from Helen's other brother (Matt) a bottle of the Ancient Pillars and he, through great effort procured and delivered a bottle. I haven't tried it yet but look forward to sharing it.
Wish you'd have another sake episode...or at least throw the occasional bottle of it into the mix?

This episode has totally inspired me to give sake a try! Great show Gary.

Question of the Day: Which Pinot did you last Taste

Last Pinot I had was the 2005 Toulouse Vineyards Pinot Noir Estate. This is an Anderson Valley Pinot, which is a region I absolutely adore.

I had a vertical tasting at the winery of 2002 through 2006 (barrel), and this wine stood out. I'd love to see more shoes on Anderson Valley (Pinot Focussed in particular) and here what Gary has to say about Toulouse:
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=345593
-n

QOTD: GV's ep with the steak and white wine recently... got me thinking about this ep. There's sake I really love with summer BBQs because it's dry and BIG feel and really a great complement to a good steak. Tenzan. Yes, comes in a weird husk wrap and is a bit higher on the alcohol scale but I love it.

There are quite a few other sakes I like for different occassions. I'm saddened that Mitsuwa supermarket shrunk it's selection of sakes and mostly swapped it for sochu.

GV... Sochu drinker???

Nice foray into the sake world Gary. I haven't had much sake in the US. I liked Junichi's post, if you could do one thing to educate your viewers about sake, it would be to stop pronouncing it incorrectly. It should be pronounced sah-kay, not sah-kee. A major pet peeve of mine ever since Sean Connery did it in the best Bond movie of all time, "You Only Live Twice."
I don't mean to sound snobby about it, as I certainly am not a sake expert. However, it would be like putting a hard "t" on the end of cabernet.
Cheers!

"pride of the village." that's my favorite so far...

QOTD: I have had lots of cheap stuff nothing good.

QOTD: the cheap stuff with SAKE BOMBS!!! Maybe its time to grow up.

Sampled some sparkling saki at one of our "wine nights" in which we attempted to make home-made sushi rolls. The night was quite a success and the sparkling saki was a big hit (we tried some inexpensive sakis as well, though none made as much of an impression as the sparkling saki).

QOTD: Okay, I don't have a favorite sake. I've had sake when I visited Japan in 1998 and a couple of weeks ago at the Japanese reception at the 2007 World Radiocommunication Conference in Geneva, Switzerland. That one was served from a barrel in wooden boxes (yes, you drank the sake out of a square, bamboo box - supposedly traditional). It was very good.

Nice show, BTW. :-)

Loved the show Gary, Sake is always interesting but for the most part I am afraid to try it in most Sushi bars because I am afraid they will be the cheap stuff.

AWESOME!!

I Rep Vine Connections in NH (Both Sake and Argentina), and know all of these well... Couldn't agree more on the Ancient Pillars - Nanbu Bijin also does The Southern Beauty, which is one of my favs in the lower price points.

Last year, ED and Nick (Vine Connections) brought John Gauntner to town for a Sake seminar - mindblowing....

It should be noted that VC puts English translations on the back label for the stuff the import.

Thanks for the great show!

Anything but the cheap domestic sake (and there are some good American-produced sakes out there.

QOTD: Black and Gold! ~14 bones at the overpriced shop next to my favorite sushi place in hoboken.

Great show Gary. It was nice to see sake getting some coverage. As a native Japanese speaker it was a bit painful to hear you pronounce sake lingo. I found a site that has audio of sake terms bring pronounced correctly. (http://www.wineintro.com/sake/audio/). I hope it helps. It is unfortunate that most sakes currently sold in the US are double or triple what they cost in Japan and most of the best sakes are never exported. I hope demand picks up in the US and we see more sake in the states.

Great episode. I have only had warm sake. I enjoy it very much but have yet to venture into premium sake. Now I will.

QOTD: No best yet.

The good and fine sake's are so smooth with the alcohol very well controlled that if you don't watch out, you'll be in a very happy mood very soon. Friends at work in Japan took me out some years back and I learnt how good sake really was compared to the stuff we normally get over here that tastes like unfiltered grain alcohol.

Looking forward to trying the Sakis. What do you eat with it?

Great episode. The problem with premium Sake is it's limited production and price point. It's hard for people to try many different ones at $30 btl. It would be nice to see more choices and quality in the $10-$20 range.

Great episode... really got me interested in Sake'. keep it up!

ahhhhhh vaynason... you drinka tha sake!!!!
much thank you and honor!

MoooooChoo Gracios for dat Fuuuun Episode!!
Gotta get me somma dat.......

QOTD: Had a cheap, raunchy one years ago.
Never tried it again.

Wicked episode. Been in Japan almost 9 years now and sake is well...a deep and wonderous world. When you come over this way we'll head up to Kyoto and tour the old sake breweries before sitting down to a huge grilled fish meal and an insane spread of junmai daiginjo! :) Until then!

sign...Gary...have some pride in the REAL WINE.

also gary i would recomend the momokawa series; silver, ruby, diamond, and pearl(cloudy).

divine droplets is my all time fav........must find this ancient pillars and try it too..

Gary - A huge thank you for doing a saké episode and raising the profile of this amazing beverage. Saké is such a huge topic, it could have a website of it's own! oh, wait - it does! Please check out my NYC Saké Blog at www.UrbanSake.com.

I have some posts on terrific nigori sakes (the cloudy type you featured) and I even profile a seminar I attended with Mr. Kosuke Kuji, the enthusiastic brewer of the OUTSTANDING Nanbu Bijin saké.

Isn't saké fantastic? you can really get hooked like I did.

A few things I thought deserved mentioning are milling rate and serving temperature. Milling rate is the amount of the outer rice grain that is ground away prior to brewing. the more of the hull that is removed, the higher grade the saké. Also, serving temperature is very important. well, it's important to try different temps to determine what you like. from chilled to gently warmed, there are tons of flavors in there. It's recommended that most premium Ginjo and Daiginjo Sakés be served slightly chilled.

Vocabulary when learning about sake was a challenge for me and a lot of folks. "ginjo" is pronounced with a hard G like in the word beGIN . not a soft G like Gin martini. (GIN-joe). "junmai" is pronounced (june my).

Thanks again for promoting Saké in this way - I hope your episode prompts lots of people to try their first premium saké!
Kanpai,
Timothy Sullivan
www.UrbanSake.com

Great shoe Gary, it was like you were a controlled storm looks like you were in the sakelightenment.
QOTD Can't lie the only sake I've had is crappy sake at a little sushi restaurant when my friends and I sake bomb! looks like there is good sake out there so I better step it up!

QOTD:
Never had sake before and never had any desire to. I do now. Thanks GV.

only have had sake that tastes like dirty laundry

Hey Gary -
Love the show. I'm in Japan, and a huge sake fan myself. I'd like to see you do tastings of more specific sakes. (é…’ [sake] only means "alcohol" in Japanese.) If you get a chance, I'd love to see a review of some shochu versus Korean soju. Seems like you stayed with the ninonshu today.

QOTD: Love sake, I haven't had enough of the good stuff.

Nice episode GV.

QOTD: I've had some of the really low end sakes, like Geikkan so I can't say that I've liked those, but my Japanese friends did bring some from home and it was excellent. Can't quite remember the name though, seeing as I don't read katakana script!