Hatsumago 初孫Densho伝承Kimoto 生酛Honjozo 本釀造 70% Seimai Buai

Rice - Local 🌾
Prefecture - Yamagata Prefecture 山形県
Brewery - Tohoku Meijo 東北銘醸
Alcohol - 15%
Color - Colorless
Aroma - Wet 🍚, Barley water, 🍈, Soy Sauce
Taste - Medium
Umami - Medium (Light when warmed)
First impression - Lively
Body - Light (Medium when warmed)
Sweetness - Medium Dry
Tail/length - Long (Medium when warmed)
Overall - A bottle of 2018 IWC Gold Medal Honjozo from Hatsumago. Hatsumago has been brewing sake using the Kimoto method since early days and have been considered as one of the few that specializes in Kimoto brewing. First nose is full of soy sauce and wet 🍚 aroma with touches of barley water and some hints of ripe 🍈. Trending towards the Jun-Shu style sake, the umami is medium and with a long tail length around 45 secs. While drinking it chilled at first, the light body surprises me as I would have thought that it should be somewhere around medium as the taste and umami are all on the medium scale. But this is good as it made the sake felt less heavy due to its long tail. Food pairing when the sake is chilled should be something on the heavy flavored side like curry fish head or even blue cheese or Gorgonzola. Next, I decided to try the sake slightly warmed to about 40C due to the food that I’m pairing it with for the night which consists of sashimi and sirloin steak with black pepper sauce. The sake becomes much mellower and both body and tail becomes medium with a slight reduction in umami level. The aroma of soy sauce is also largely reduced and in turn replaced by fresh steam 🍚. Personally I’m not a huge fan of strong soy sauce aroma and warming this sake up makes it more palatable for my liking and also enhances the sirloin steak by not overpowering it with its umami.
Overall, this is a very good sake.

Mitsui San
An amateur sake lover who loves anything 🇯🇵 and started exploring 🍶 drinking 5 years ago. A Kikisakeshi #唎酒師 by SSI & Certified Sake Sommelier by SSA. IG: @mitsui.sakenoob