FSR magazine April 2018

LIQUID INTELLIGENCE WINE
SIPS APPEAL
SakéOne’s
g fifty sake
A subtle, delicate sake
with plenty of body,
g fifty is the product
of Coastal Mountain
Range Oregon water
and Sacramento Valley
rice. Served chilled, it is
medium-dry on the palate
and brings about
notes of nectarine,
green apple, and mint.
Thinking beyond the
traditional Japanese
dish pairing, SakéOne’s
Jessie Sheeran recommends
enjoying
g fifty with grilled
meats, pasta, and hard,
aged cheeses. “Mac
‘n’ cheese and cheeseburgers
are absolutely
perfect,” she says.
FOREST GROVE
OREGON
and sake pairings. At MIFUNE, cocktail producer
Shingo Gokan offers the Seven Samurai,
composed of rye whiskey, aged sake, East
India sake, bitters, and smoked cinnamon.
Trendler, a wine industry veteran who had
never worked with sake before MIFUNE, says
the drink has broadened his horizons exponentially.
“We have a lot of cool sakes that
represent a wide range of flavors,” he says. He
plays off the restaurant’s ever-evolving seasonal
cuisine to create pairings, seeking out
both contrasting and complementing tastes.
In the case of the latter, he pours earthy Manzairaku
alongside a scallop with mushroom
consommé.
“Manzairaku tastes just like shiitake mushrooms,
so that pairing was a no-brainer for
me,” he says. Sake also gives him the opportunity
to play up the menu’s bold umami flavors
with varietals he says mimic the taste
of banana bread and bubble gum. “It sounds
crazy until you try it,” he says.
Increased accessibility
“Five years ago, Japanese fine dining was
the upper echelon of luxury,” Trendler says.
“Lately it’s become more accessible—and so
has sake,” he adds.
That trend toward approachability is also
thanks in part to makers like Umenoyado
Brewery. The fifth-generation brewer based
out of Nara, Japan recently worked with
New York-based Spirits Consulting Group
to develop Haikara, a sake created specifically
for the U.S. market. Spirits Consulting
Group CEO Susan Mooney says the citrusy
flavor combines notes of yuzu and white
peach and is “familiar to the American palate.”
Even the name Haikara, which translates
to “high collar,” hearkens back to the
clothing style of the first Westerners living
in Japan and “speaks to the east-meetswest
feel we wanted to create,” Mooney says.
“We were mindful to make a product that’s
authentic and rooted in tradition, but also
really accessible,” she says.
Trendler shares Mooney’s sentiment,
offering this advice to sake novices: “Don’t
worry about the labels or menu descriptions,
and don’t be intimidated by new language or
classification systems. Sake should just be
inviting and fun.”
GENSHU SAKE IS UNDILUTED, MEANING THERE IS NO SECONDARY WATER ADDED TO MODIFY
THE ALCOHOL LEVEL. THIS VARIETY, THEN, OFFERS A HEARTIER FLAVOR AND BODY.
THINKSTOCK
34 APRIL 2018 FOODNEWSFEED.COM