Dassai has proven itself to be the poster child for Japan's most popular local alcoholic beverage, Sake. 

And that's whether you like to admit it or not - its popularity has permeated the world outside of Japan, and that's a feat almost every brewery can dream of.

Top that off with the great comeback story behind the brand that took a brewery on the verge of bankruptcy, left without a toji and its subsequent life-gives-you-lemons-so-you-make-lemonade story and you have something right out of a cinematic underdog movie.

Now, as a caveat, popularity and fame does not necessarily equate quality, but that's what we're here to find out today.

Does Dassai really walk the talk?

Who would have thought a sake from the mountainous Yamaguchi Prefecture, not known for its sake making, turned out to be sake's biggest hit. (Image Source: Dassai)

Today we review a vertical of Dassai labels - the Dassai 45, Dassai 39 and Dassai 23, each number is a reference to the rice polishing ratio used for the corresponding expression.

This is also particularly interesting because alot of focus has been on Dassai's achievement of a 23% rice polishing ratio which was unprecedented in sakes at the time, and was what helped to market and make a name for the brand. This even caught global attention when the Dassai 23 was served at a 2015 White House state dinner, and has now become increasingly popular with high end restaurants.

Given that focus on rice polishing ratio (and everything else being kept constant across the range), it'll be exciting to see if we can really taste the difference from 45 to 39 and finally the fabled 23, as we go up the rice polishing scale (23 referencing the 23% of each rice grain that's left after polishing).

Dassai 45 - Review

For the Dassai 45, the Yamada-nishiki rice used was polished down to 45%, with this being a replacement of the prior discontinued Dassai 50. This sits at the most entry level of the Classic Dassai range and is the most accessible in both availability and price.

Tasting Note 

Color: White Wine

Aroma: There's a bright but vague sense of unsweetened yogurt, aromas of honeydew melon, a slight bit of minerality of flint and rainwater. Slightly dry and also somewhat dense.

Taste: Quite thick and creamy, with more of that unsweetened yogurt - a light lactic hit of dough. Over time slightly more estery and fruity with flavours of pear and white grapes.

Finish: More on tart green melons, with more acidity here.

My Thoughts

This had a creamy denseness to it, which made for a good weighty texture, while its flavours are very classic "sake" - by which I mean a light sourness, with flavours of melon and light minerality. Where this differs is its weightlessness - it's flavours are brighter and more expressive. However this felt alittle denser and while it was more accessible to the palate and had more heft, this also seem blockier and might have occluded the full power of the flavours somewhat.

It was nonetheless tasty and definitely did compare favourably against other sakes. I really liked the creamier texture and more expressive flavours.

Dassai 39 - Review

This is the middle child of the Dassai range, sitting at a 39% rice polishing ratio - so it's very much an interim transition of the flavour profile as we start to head into Dassai-level territories.

Tasting Notes

Color: Lighter White Wine

Aroma: More limestone, chalky, minerality. And then onto a more sour lactic yogurt and bread dough. There's a little bit of sliced cucumbers here as well.

Taste: Sweeter but less creamy than the 45, with more of those pears and a sweeter yogurt. It's also noticeably smoother here as well.

Finish: Again more sweet here (or less dry), but with more noticeable heat and alittle bit more acidity. The melon notes here are slightly more apparent.

My Thoughts

This is less viscous and creamy, but sweeter than the 45. While less fruity and aromatic it is easier to drink and also smoother. Here it's more balanced across the sourness, minerality and sweetness.

The aromas are deceiving as the palate is sweeter than you'd expect and also alittle more defined in terms of its flavours expressed. There's also more oomph on the finish that makes it more crisp and punchy. Compared to the 45, this was also more clean in its flavours - just a notch - and more defined as well.

Dassai 23 - Review

Finally, we down to the most famous of Dassai's - the 23. This was the expression that got Dassai its breakout popularity and is the main expression people look towards when to Dassai.

The reason why this was a great feat, beyond it being the first in sake history, is also that it required constant milling of the rice for 7 straight days of 24 hour polishing to get it to the 23% polishing level. Hence the sheer amount of labour that goes into it is immense - and can't be mechanised and has to be done by hand.

The rice bran (responsible for grittier taste) is laboriously milled to leave pearls of the rice grain's shinpaku - the starchy white core, which is what gives the bright floral, fruity and sweet notes. (Image Source: Dassai)

Since its launch in 1992 (its been a long time coming!), Asahi Shuzo has sought to keep innovating and later launched a Dassai 23 Centrifuge that used the sake industry's first centrifuge machine to extract the sake, and also the Dassai Hayata which works to pasteurise the sake in a unique method that reduced the effects of heat on its flavours. Several other seasonal Dassai 23 variants have also been created and released on occasion since.

But of course, it would/should not be surprising that given Dassai's forte in rice polishing, Dassai has since gone beyond that landmark 23% level. The Dassai Bisui has a rice polishing level of 21%, whilst the Dassai Beyond is said to have a rice polishing level of up to16%, and the Dassai Mirai has a rice polishing of a staggering 8% - however, these were under some special instances and hence are not part of Dassai's core focus.

Dassai has seemed to find the 23% level the most suitable in both taste and cost, and has largely focused on expanding the focus on taste differentiation rather than rice polishing ratio, as any higher the ratio would be too costly to produce and might be unstable for use as the shinpaku would crumble.

Tasting Notes 

Color: Even Lighter White Wine

Aroma: More tartness and lactic sourness but also more crisp, sort of like a light dry white wine aroma of white grapes, white peaches, lychees and honeydews - a bright estery aroma. There's also some crisp bit of white florals in winter - think snow.

Taste: Brighter, crisper, cleaner taste with more on green melon and yogurt, and alittle bit of cream cheese or cultured butter. There's a jasmine floral note as well. There's a very gentle hit of white peach flesh - but difficult to pick out apart from the estery sweetness.

Finish: Clean, crisp, leaving a light tartness of green grapes with mild acidity in the aftertaste.

My Thoughts

This is the most elegant, aromatic and distinctive. It has these bright, delicate top notes that are very well-defined and yet gentle but still sweet. It's alot cleaner and more crisp compared to the 39 and 45, sort of a notch above the 39, whilst maintaining a good amount of creaminess of body and acidity, lesser than the 45 but more than the 39. 

It has a very refined elegance to it where as I mentioned the 45 had this sense of the flavours wanting to come through but being obfuscated somewhat. Here there's no flavours on the darker part of the spectrum like in the 45, and so its very airy, but at the same time is laid atop a still sweet and creamy body, which is what fills in the body of those delicate top notes to give alot of that brightness constitutes a sense of refinement.  

Overall

Tasting the Dassai vertical can probably be best described as climbing a snow capped mountain (bear with me now) - you get a pretty consistent backbone of flavours across all three, but each higher level of polishing (from 45 to 39 and then 23) soft of washes away the darker, more heavy notes to reveal a brightness and delicateness of the top notes that are already present.

The 45 is like the base of the mountain where you can see the peak but around you it's mostly gravel - you get a sense of what that Dassai character is like but it's not completely clear. And then at the 39, you're sort of halfway up the mountain so the peak is even clearer now, but you're still also sort of not quite there - but you're equidistant from peak and base. Then when you finally get to the 23, you're at the peak where it's right at the top with all the sunlight and brightness but you're also at the sharpest point of the mountain where there's really not that much else.

It's really cool to see that progression of going from having more body and depth to becoming brighter and brighter still - which is really the effect of the grittiness of the rice bran being polished off in increasing amounts as we go from the 45 to the 23.

To rate them, I'd start by saying that they were all actually enjoyable quite honestly, albeit in different aspects. I really enjoyed the denseness of the 45, the balance of the 39 and the refined top notes of the 23. 

And yet quite honestly, price aside, I'd actually pick the 39 as my favourite because of that really amazing balance. The 45 is a really close pick because it's just so easy to drink and has a great mouthfeel. The 23 is in my opinion alittle bit more of a vanity piece - definitely try it before you knock it - but with just the top notes, I find that its lost some of that lovely richness and complexity, with a narrower profile.

Recommendation: Drink the 39 for a daily sake, Pair the 45 with food and Gift the 23.

Pro Tip: Dassai has some pretty delicate flavours that are quite easily influenced by the temperature at which it is served - through several rounds of tasting, I've found that the best temperature is to have it chilled in the fridge, before leaving the bottle out at room temperature for about 5-10 minutes uncorked prior to serving.

It is generally said that Dassai should NOT be served warm, but too cold also keeps the flavours muted.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot