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Seeing Sake Quality and Taste Without Opening the Bottle: Sake Labeling Explained

Sake Quality

Seeing Sake Quality and Taste Without Opening the Bottle: Sake Labeling Explained

You can get a general idea of what sake tastes like simply by looking at the label. Today, Wikipedia will teach you how to read Japanese sake labels.sake tasting hong kongs is good!

Sake Can Never Get Around It: Sake Can Never Get Around It

We need to know the premium sake classification for a specific wine before we can learn how to read a sake label.

Sake's specific name can be determined by knowing what refined rice treading and cooking alcohol are.

The outer layer of the rice grain contains proteins, fats, and lipids, which are good for the human body but are bad for sake brewing because they create unwanted flavors during the brewing process.

To make sake without off-flavors, the surface of the rice is ground off and the core is used. The refined rice step, also known as polishing retention rate, refers to the proportion of the surface of a grain of rice that is ground off and left over.

Further, based on whether Chinese brewing production alcohol (some alcohol for consumption) is added to the sake, it can be categorized as pure rice or Honbrewing.

Brewing, which sounds like mixing alcohol, isn't that frightening.

It is obtained by fermenting and distilling molasses left over from the production of cane sugar. To add flavor and refresh sake, brewing alcohol is added in prescribed amounts. This is why top-quality sakes are not always made from pure rice.

Depending on whether alcohol is brewed or not, these wines are categorized as Honjo, Tokusatsu Honjo, Ginjo, Daikijo, Junmai, Tokusatsu Junmai, Ginjo and Daikijo.

Fouta wines are also white wines that don't meet the criteria for a specific named white wine.

Teachers can begin by deciphering sake labels after learning about specific sake names.

A sake bottle has two types of labels: the front label and the back label.

Front labels are attached to the front of the bottle, and they are easy to read at a glance. Back labels are attached to the back of the bottle, and they contain detailed information.

Let's take a look at the front label first.

The front label of Otter Matsuri's sake

Sake Label: First Impression

The name of the sake

It is common for the name of a sake to be displayed in large kanji characters or calligraphy art script on the front sake label, so that it may be unreadable to a Japanese person.

Be on the lookout for "Sake" or "Nihon Sake".

Japanese sakes are called this to indicate that they are Japanese. The label should indicate "liqueur" or "miscellaneous sake" if the bottle does not meet the requirements for brewing Japanese sake, contains ingredients other than those legally required for brewing Japanese sake, or has an alcohol content that exceeds the prescribed range.

Sake types

If a bottle of sake matches the name of a specific type of wine prescribed by law, the type of wine should be written on the wine label; otherwise, the sake is ordinary wine.

Name of raw material

The names of raw materials will be written in ascending order, beginning with rice and rice quarts and other raw materials. In addition to rice and rice curd, there is also brewing alcohol, sugar, and acidifier. These ingredients may be noted on the sake label, and anything added during the brewing process is noted there as well.

Additionally, the word "junmai" cannot be added to the specific name of sake containing alcohol.

5. The amount of alcohol consumed

Liquor or liqueur with an alcohol content greater than 22 percent. The alcohol content of sake should not exceed 22 degrees.

6、Date of manufacture

When a bottle of wine is less than 300 ml, you can omit the "year and month" and write only "date of manufacture".

7. Remarks

A sake bottle will state that "underage drinking is prohibited by law" and other precautions will be taken to prevent underage drinking. There will also be some precautions concerning preserving and drinking raw sake.

Name of the manufacturer

Sake bottle manufacturer's name.

Address of the manufacturer

Wine manufacturer's specific address.

Volume 10

The volume of a bottle of wine should be expressed in 1.8 liters or 720 ml, not in the Japanese measurement unit of one liter or four hectoliters.

Back label of Van's

Wine flavor is recorded on the back label

To make it easier for consumers to understand the flavor of the bottle, some manufacturers also place back labels on bottles.

Step-hopping with refined rice

Polishing retention is also known as RPR. The lower the quantity, the higher the value and the purer the flavor, but the higher the quantity, the stronger the freshness. Less than 60% of wines are clear; above this value, they can be cloudy.

The Japanese Brix is 2

Japanese alcohol can be used as a measure of sugar content. Once sugar is added to Japanese-style wine, its weight per milliliter is compared against that of water at 4°C. If it is lighter, the wine is considered "positive" and does not contain added sugar. Conversely, if it is heavier, the wine has a higher sugar content. However, the alcohol level of sake does not determine its sweetness; this is determined by the ratio of sweetness to other flavors present in the sake.

The acidity of the solution

It contains many organic acids, such as malic acid, lactic acid, succinic acid, citric acid, etc. Acidity indicates the value of the technical content of acidic substances.

4. Acidity of amino acids

Aside from organic acids, Japanese wines contain amino acids that enhance the taste. The degree of amino acids refers to the amount of amino acids in the wine.

Yeast, no. 5

Yeast used for fermentation plays an important role in sake's flavor.

Rice that is raw

Rice type affects the taste of sake as well as the front label. Some wines will also have a rice step on the back label.

The 7-star winemaker

The winemaker who brewed the bottle is Du.

The year of brewing

The brewery year in which this bottle was brewed in China is indicated by BY (Brewery Year).

Methods of preservation

Preservation methods for sake, such as refrigeration and room temperature.

The styles and notes of sake

In addition to describing the taste of sake, it is important to note what is needed when drinking sake.

11、Production method

In the following common Japanese, you can see how this bottle of sake is made.

Water for brewing

This label indicates the name of the Chinese water used to brew this bottle.

Unlike the front label, the back label focuses on the characteristics of the wine's data so consumers can understand the bottle better. There are no hard and fast rules for the back of the label, so different wines may have different back labels, and some manufacturers even do not have back labels so as not to mislead consumers' taste expectations.

The most common Japanese words on wine labels

Wikipedia also searched for some common Japanese words on wine labels to help decipher them.

Original Sake (原酒): Sake made without water dilution and alcohol adjustment.

Root beer (なまざけ): Root beer is alcohol that is sold directly after brewing without being sterilized by heating twice. As the yeast in the original brew is still active and the quality of the brew is constantly changing, it needs to be kept refrigerated. "Hon" and "Mori" are also original sakes.

New sake can only be called old sake after it has been brewed for one year, but most are sold as old sake that is 3 years old or older, and matured sake that is 5 years old can be called secret (ひ) 蔵(ぞう) sake (ざけ).

The quality of raw wine is more stable and the taste is more fresh than that of raw wine, since raw wine is sterilized only once before storage.

Raw wine is stored directly with the original wine and is sterilized only once before bottling, resulting in a more complex flavor than the original sake.

Using a sling, Shizuku hangs cloudy wine so that it drips naturally.

It has a sweet taste and a strong flavor, and is slightly more expensive than the regular sake from the Japan Sake Tax Board.

Ikibunshu (きいっぽんしゅ): Ikibunshu can only be labelled if it is made by a single brewery.

Wine is stored in a wooden container to give it a woodsy taste in a sake bottle.

White rice residue sediment retained in the wine after separating the mash.

Sparkling Cloud Wine: Sparkling cloud wine is not heat sterilized, and the yeast in the wine continues to ferment, producing carbon dioxide.

The front label contains mainly brand information and the type of sake while the back label contains information about its characteristics, but there are no hard and fast rules for the back label, so some sakes don't even have one.

In conclusion, interpreting the sake label, it is true that we can judge and imagine the taste of a bottle of sake to a certain extent, but not all flavors can be judged by this value, and the final development remains the enterprise needs the students to taste it for themselves.

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