Posted on: Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Byte Marks
Unraveling mysteries of sake

By Burt Lum
A guide to cool Net sites and Web spots

"While you are tasting the quality, it seems as if you came across an elegant, graceful, slender lady who won't care for men at all. The more it is drunk, the more fascinating it is getting."

This description of sake is apropos. I found it on a Japanese Web site while researching a bottle of sake I recently received from one of Chris Pearce's famous sake-kai tasting events. It was a brief description of Koshino Tosetsuka from the Takano Brewery in Niigata.

I find sake very alluring. I've drunk sake in Hawai'i and Japan. I've had it hot, chilled and at room temperature, but it's always been in a restaurant. Up until the bottle of Koshino, I have never seen the sake bottles that I have drunk. Sake was and still is a complete mystery to me. But I'm slowly peeling away the layers of the onion. One place to start is Pearce's sake Web site, www.joyofsake.com.

Coincidentally, my friends at Stone Bridge Press (www.stonebridge.com/sake/sake.html) sent me "Sake, Pure + Simple," a companion book on sake that is essential reading for anyone looking to demystify the world of sake. Authors Grif Frost and John Gauntner are staunch promoters of sake. Together they cover types of sake, the culture, the ingredients, top picks, tasting tips and the places to find sake in the United States and in Japan. While Frost lives in Hawai'i and is the founder and CEO of an American sake company (www.sake-world.com), Gauntner writes from Japan and maintains several Web sites that promote sake.

One of Gauntner's online projects is www.esake.com. Being a connoisseur of sake, Gauntner commands knowledge of the brewing process. In addition, he also sells online sake from several of the small family-run breweries in Japan.

Thirty years ago the number of small breweries numbered more than 3,500. Although only half exist today, the variety of sake is still overwhelming for the newly initiated. This Web site further helps to unravel the centuries of Japanese sake refinement for the Western world.

Kanpai! ;-)

Reach Burt Lum at burt@brouha ha.net.