This text is part of the special book Plaisirs
If sake seduces by its divine flavors, it is perhaps because it was, 2000 years ago in Japan, the drink of the gods. Dive into the heart of a complex universe where the smallest decision of the brewer is important.
With the syllable “Sa” meaning god of the mountain, followed by “ké” designating the meal, sake once referred to a poetic idea: “the meal to welcome the god of the mountain”, explains Kuniko Fujita, international sommelier of sake.
But, today as yesterday, if there is a god when it comes to sake, it is unquestionably the brewer. It is his will that determines the final taste.
If a sake is fruity and floral on the palate, it’s because the brewer wanted it that way. Each sake has its own aromas, which vary according to the ingredients used and the way the brewer has carried out the manufacturing process. So many subtleties that open up to us like marvelous worlds.
“One of my favorites is called Bibibi,” says sake specialist Yuri Koshiyama-Chia. It is a dry sake and funky which comes from Kagawa, on the island of Shikoku: when you taste it, it’s like licking the rock by the sea, like the aftertaste of an oyster on your lips. »
Divine. We told you!
But how to find it?
There are eight types of sake, classified according to the percentage of polishing the rice and adding alcohol, details Kuniko Fujita. Polishing and adding alcohol are two ways the brewer can control taste.
By the way, don’t panic: the addition of alcohol has no effect on the final alcohol content of the sake, which is generally around 15 to 16%.
The most “raw” sake is junmai, because there is no added alcohol. “The brewer lets the unique character of the combination of rice, yeast and water express itself. We have a wild, dry side, with a more pronounced taste of alcohol”, explains the one whom the community nicknames the “Madame Saké of Quebec”.
If the brewer adds a small amount of alcohol, it is a honjozo.
There is also alcohol in sake called ginjo. “The brewer adds alcohol to stop the fermentation work of the yeasts and, above all, to balance the final taste of the sake, which will be more floral and fruity,” explains Kuniko Fujita.
These terms also provide information on the polishing rate of the rice grain. In ginjos, which have a polishing rate of 60%, 40% of the grain of rice has been removed, compared to honjozos and junmais, at the polishing rate of 70%, where some 30% of the grain has been removed. grain. The ginjo is more delicate than the latter, because it has been worked more.
What if the sake is a ginjo, but hasn’t had any added alcohol? So it’s a junmai ginjo! You follow ? A ginjo junmai has more aromas than a simple junmai.
What should be remembered is that the more the rice is polished (it is the outer part of the rice that is crushed, the part that contains the proteins), the more it expresses the will of the brewer.
The most polished rice sake is daiginjo: this means that 50% of the grain has been eliminated. It is the sake closest to the will of the brewer, the most expensive and the finest. A junmai daiginjo, you will understand, is a daiginjo in which no alcohol has been added.
Do you remember sake reminiscent of the sea and oysters? Well, he’s a yamahai honjozo. Now you know what honjozo means. Yamahai is a technical term for a method where the brewer did not add lactic acid and left the sake to ferment naturally.
An art above all
Even if the ingredients of sake always remain the same (water, rice, yeast, koji), each brewer’s recipe, which he sometimes prefers to keep secret, has a magical power.
The brewers study the minerality of the water, the types of water, but also the influence that a particular type of rice has on a particular type of yeast or in the presence of a particular type of water. Each combination has its effects, which can be regulated, but not completely. We are not far from the work of the chemist in his laboratory.
What’s more, the quality of the rice grain starch can complicate the manufacturing process, the choice of using hard or soft water will not give the same result, and yeast also has its own character.
“For example, brewer Masumi, who comes from Nagano, is known for his sweet yeast number 7, very silky on the tongue,” says Yuri Koshiyama-Chia. If you ever see his Shiro on a card, buy it. »
And it does not stop there ! Even once in our glass, the sake will see its taste modified according to the tasting temperature.
“Kamoizumi’s Shusen Honjikomi is a surprising junmai ginjo, which comes from Hiroshima. Cold it will be very floral, but at room temperature it will taste like freshly mown grass. And if you heat it, it tastes slightly like shiitake broth. »
Manufacturing, precise know-how
Before the sake is put on sale, different steps are necessary: rice preparation, fermentation, pressing and filtration, pasteurization, storage. Each has its use and importance.
Sake is obtained by mixing water, yeast and rice, which the brewer will saccharify using koji, a small mushroom that is found in powder form and which creates sugar from starch. rice, located in the center of the grain. A manufacturing process that is similar to that of beer, while the grapes of wine already contain glucose.
In terms of taste, the soaking or cooking times of the rice are also important, as is the polishing time. The brewer can vary the fermentation time or the humidity level. He can also choose to filter his sake a little: he then obtains the nigori, with its characteristic cloudy and milky color. One of Kuniko Fujita’s favorite spring sakes.