While celebrating my most recent birthday at Nasime, I was sipping Mizubasho Ginjo from the pairing menu and I had the sense that sake had, at last, arrived in Northern Virginia.
As an Alexandrian, I was filled with local pride. As the author of Sakepedia: A Non-Traditional Guide to Japan’s Traditional Beverage (Turner, $16.99) out this month, who toured a dozen sake breweries in Japan, plus a handful in the states, and invested a great deal of time and money in sake education—I’m a certified Kikisake-shi, or sake sommelier—I felt validated.
Sake, the Japanese rice-based fermented beverage, has been slowly gaining in popularity among American consumers, about a 16 percent uptick between 2011 and 2016, according to market research firm Euromonitor International. But the vast majority of bars and restaurants have been slow to catch up with those evolving palates, offering a limited picture of the diverse flavor experience that is sake.
Still, there are plenty of Northern Virginia venues getting it right.
To understand sake, it’s important to know exactly what it is, and isn’t. It’s a common mistake to call sake a spirit (there’s no distillation) or a rice wine. Sake is grain-based and brewed, which makes it a lot closer to beer (in production, if not in flavor). And to understand the wide range of sakes, it’s all about polish ratios.
Before rice is brewed into sake, a portion of the outer husk of the rice kernel is polished or milled away. The more polished the rice, the less protein and fat remain, the greater the starchy core influences the flavor and aroma.
Though sake is a historically Japanese product and the majority is still produced there, sake breweries from Austin, Texas, to Nashville, Tennessee, are making world-class versions. I’m hopeful we’ll soon see a sake brewer within Northern Virginia’s booming craft drink scene. Maybe by my next birthday?
What to know, and where to find sake in Northern Virginia
Type: Honjozo
Details: Honjozo is where premium-grade sake begins. At least 30 percent of a honjozo’s rice has been milled away. For instance, if 35 percent is polished off, its polishing ratio is 65 percent (the amount that remains). There’s a bit of distilled alcohol added to honjozo’s mash, though it doesn’t add any alcohol strength to the resulting sake (about 15 percent alcohol by volume). Brewers do this to achieve a particular flavor and aroma profile, and it adds a silky mouthfeel.
Drink it: Kaikaya
• Kikusui Honjozo by Kikusui Sake Company from Niigata, Japan
• Hakkaisan Honjozo by Hakkaisan Brewery from Niigata, Japan
Type: Junmai
Details A sake with a polish ratio similar to honjozo (61 to 70 percent), junmai has no added distilled spirit—all of its alcohol is derived from the rice fermentation process, and its name means “pure rice.” The flavor and aroma can vary wildly, but there are frequently some toasted grain, nutty and mushroom-y elements.
Drink it: Kaikaya
• Sho Chiku Bai by Takara Sake USA from Berkeley, California
Nasime
• Kurosawa by Kurosawa Sake from Hawthorne, California
• Hatsumago by Tohoku Meijo from Yamagata, Japan
The Sushi Bar
• Sho Chiku Bai by Takara Sake USA from Berkeley, California
Type: Ginjo /Junmai Ginjo
Details: When at least 40 percent of the grain is milled away (polish ratio of 60 percent) and there’s spirit added to the mash, it’s a ginjo. If there’s no additional alcohol, it’s a junmai ginjo. The fruitier, floral ginjo and junmai ginjo, Kaikaya’s Danny Sin says, is a good match for a wide range of nigiri, complementing the slight sweetness of the sushi rice and the spiciness of the wasabi.
Drink it: Kaikaya
• Kikusui by Kikusui Shuzo from Niigata, Japan
The Sushi Bar
• Momokawa Diamond Junmai Ginjo by SakéOne from Forest Grove, Oregon
Nasime
• Mizubasho Ginjo by Nagai Shuzo from Gunma, Japan
• Hananomai Katana Junmai Ginjo by Hananomai Shuzo from Shizuoka, Japan
Type: Daiginjo /Junmai Daiginjo
Details: This is where we get into much more delicate territory. The rice is milled to 50 percent or less—and some sake daredevils mill down to the single digits. Daiginjo tends to be pricier, mainly because intensely milled rice is tiny and brewers, therefore, have to use a lot more of it. The same “pure rice” distinction applies for junmai daiginjo, as it does for junmai ginjo. Daiginjos can be gorgeously aromatic, with deeper floral and fruit character on the nose. Flavor-wise, they’re more nuanced than the other styles. “Daiginjo is great for a starter or an end of a meal,” says Nasime chef-owner Yuh Shimomura, especially because it shines without food pairings. Just how bars list beers from hoppy to roasty, Nasime’s menu displays sakes from lighter to richer taste and higher to lesser aroma, giving diners a sense of sake’s varying characteristics.
Drink it: Nasime
• Kurosawa Junmai Daiginjo by Kurosawa Brewery from Nagano, Japan
• Okunomatsu Daiginjo Ihei by Okunomatsu Sake Brewery from Fukushima, Japan
Kaikaya
14107 St. Germain Drive, Centreville
The Sushi Bar
2312 Mount Vernon Ave., Alexandria
Nasime
1209 King St., Alexandria
