Japanese Sake List
Information on hundreds of Sakes, including photos of bottles, spec sheets, and brewery information
Tamano Hikari Hiyaoroshi Junmai Daiginjo
Tamano Hikari Hiyaoroshi Junmai Daiginjo
Class: Junmai Daiginjo
Rice: Kyoto Sake Rice
Rice-Polishing Ratio: 60%
Brewery Location: Kyoto Prefecture
Food Pairings: Tempura, Grilled Saba, Pumpkin Gnocchi in Herb Butter Sauce, Kushiyaki with Shoyu Tare, and Seasonal Roasted Vegetables
Tasting Notes: This rich, dry sake has calm and shy floral aromatics which contrast radically against the autumnal flavors on the palate - shoyu, burnt caramel, and a soft but tart maple sap finish.
Hiyaoroshi style sake are made and pasteurized at the end of brewing season, then are put to sleep over the warm winter months in the coldest part of the brewery. When the cold ("hiya") of fall and winter starts to descend ("oroshi"), the sake is bottled and sold without a second pasteurization. These sake should be consumed while the weather is still cold, and tend to have very rich and rounded flavor profiles, so they pair perfectly with the seasonal dishes of autumn.
Location: NY NJ Distribution
Brewery: TAMANOHIKARI Sake Brewing
Founded: 1673
Profile: For over 300 years, Tamano Hikari Brewery has been working their hardest to brew supreme quality sake. Their motto is that "Good Sake comes from Good Rice" and so they polish all of their sake rice - obtained through contracts with private farmers - within the walls of their brewery. They were one of the first to halt the use of additives like alcohol and sugar, but were also the first to halt use of preservatives, and basically reestablished Junmai sake. In 1980, they added Ginjo style sake to their repertoire. Now almost all the sake they produce is Junmai Ginjo style.
