Oregon firm reinventing the art of making sake

A brewery for beer, a winery for wine and now a "sakery" for sake.

"Sakery" is a new term coined by Grif Frost for the place where sake, Japanese rice wine, is made. Frost is founder and CEO of SakeOne, producers of sake in Forest Grove, Ore. As a key player in a small but growing contingent of sake producers in the United States, Frost is reinventing Japanese sake-making, an art that began in 300 B.C.

One of his innovations is Y Sake Rain, a ginger-infused sake, slightly sweet with a medium body and an alluring and exotic scent. It is one of four sakes bearing the Y Sake name that is made for Roy’s Restaurants, the Honolulu-based restaurant group that is growing nationally and internationally.

Frost was in town last week along with restaurant entrepreneur Shep Gordon of Maui, a partner in the Y Sake project, to introduce the new sakes at a series of dinners at Roy’s restaurants statewide. Roy Yamaguchi, founder and executive chef of Roy’s Restaurants, was also on hand to oversee the dinner preparations as his signature purple-hued bottles of Wind, Sky, Snow and Rain sakes were poured alongside dishes prepared in his Euro-Asian style.

Sake consumption is growing worldwide, according to Frost. "One of three glasses of wine in the world is sake; in the U.S., it’s one of 100. The world wine market is $100 billion and of that sake is $30 billion. We saw an 18 percent growth last year in the U.S."

Frost started his company in 1992, importing sakes from Japan. This is his third year of production, which will see 70 to 80,000 cases distributed in all 50 states and England and Canada. There are five sakeries in the United States, all in California except Frost’s. "We have Hawai‘i students attending Pacific University who work on our bottling crew," noted Frost.

"Sake makers in Japan are extremely traditional and conservative," said Frost, who has utilized modern equipment, processing and technology in his production of the traditional rice wine. Perhaps the biggest difference is the taste. "Japanese sake has a bit of a bite, made for the taste buds of a 65-year-old sake maker. The U.S. customer wants a smooth sake; we’re making it for the customer.

"The high-tech community has embraced it, and we sell more sake in Boulder, Colo., than in New York City. Sake is perceived as organic; there are no sulfites, and it has a third of the acidity of wine. It has a ‘pure and clean’ image. Asian cuisine and healthy lifestyle trends are driving sake sales."

Frost produces ginjo and daiginjo sakes, rice wines that use premium rices whose kernels are polished to 58 percent and 48 percent of their original size and aged for six and nine months, respectively. "The more you polish away the proteins and fatty acids in the outer kernel, the less impurities you have that cause hangovers," explained Frost.

SakeOne’s sakes are meant to be consumed cold. "Lots of people think sake should be drunk warm; heat would destroy these sakes," instructed Frost. "Always drink them cold in a wine glass." He recommends that you swirl it around the glass like you would wine, sniff then sip.

Sakes should be consumed within a year of bottling, advised Frost. "In Japan, all sakes have a bottling date but exported sakes don’t. All of our bottles have a ‘best enjoyed by’ date."

Tasting notes

Y Sake Rain: Exotic fruity perfume, slightly sweet and soft on the palate, pronounced gingery infusion. An excellent pairing with chiso grilled salmon with pickled ginger. Junmai daiginjo, 14.5 percent alcohol.

Y Sake Sky: Minerally scent, dryish and crisp, full-bodied enough to stand alongside an Island-style lomi salmon and ‘ahi tuna poke. Junmai daiginjo, 16 percent alcohol.

Y Sake Wind: Less-pronounced scent, crisp, dry with substantial body. A fine accompaniment to a lobster chawanmushi (steamed egg custard). Junmai daiginjo, 16 percent alcohol.

Y Sake Snow: A cloudy, unfiltered sake, as white as snow. A little sweet but crisp, elegant and full-flavored. It was nice to sip on its own, even though there was the miso-flavored Chilean whitefish and imu smoked pork served alongside. Junmai daiginjo nogori genshu, 14.5 percent alcohol.

Roy’s Y Sake Tasting Dinners feature a five-course dinner paired with Sky, Rain, Wind and Snow sakes, and are offered at Roy’s Restaurants statewide. Locations: Po‘ipÂ, Kaua‘i; Waikoloa, Hawai‘i; Kihei, Kahana; and at Nicolina (Roy’s sister restaurant) on Maui and Hawai‘i Kai on O‘ahu. $55 with sake plus tax and tip.

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