Japanese

Day 2. In the afternoon the participants performed tasting sake brewed in Fushimi at Gekkeikan Sake Brewery.
34 sake items were prepared by 18 sake breweries for the Fushimi Sake Brewers’ Association, one of the sponsors of the event.
The participants were divided into two groups and they seriously tried sake tasting with a tasting sheet in English.
Sake items for tasting

（１） （２）

    Ordinary sake / honjozo-shu / junmai-shu 9 items
    Ginjo-shu 9 items
    Daiginjo-shu 12 items
    Nigori-zake / long preserved sake 4 items

Some participant observed special old amber sake which was brewed in 1976.

Henry Chang from Hong Kong said, “Japanese sake is quite popular in Hong Kong. This is a precious opportunity for me to taste various kinds of sake at a time. I liked sake which is similar to wine. I think that an elegant type of sake goes with Guangdong cuisine and that a full body type of sake goes with Shanghai cuisine and grilled meat on skewers.
I wish I could enjoy sake tasting by taking my time for a few hours.”

Nelson Chow, Chairman of the Hong Kong Sommelier Association said,
“In Hong Kong sommeliers have just started studying Japanese sake. Various kinds of sake are imported to Hong Kong but more than half of the items for sake tasting are new to me. We should deepen our knowledge on sake as well as wine.”

For sake tasting each participant used a special cup called “Janome Choko” (a white sake cup with a navy blue snake eye pattern like double circles on the bottom) and the sake cup was presented to the participants as a souvenir.
Suyanto from Indonesia said, “The special sake cup for tasting is very interesting because I usually use a glass for sake tasting.”
“Janome Choko”, a special sake cup for tasting easily shows a cloud and a delicate shade of color of sake.
Many participants took their time for sake tasting.
Their comments on each sake will help the member of the Fushimi Sake Breweries as well as sake breweries of Japan develop themselves.

Japanese