Kan-wine (?)

Do you remember our previous post about "Kan-zake"? One of sake's unique characters is that sake has different characters at different temperatures. (However today's topic is not about sake but wine.)

This wine is "Le Péché Mignon" 2008 Pinot noir, King valley. I purchased it in Beechworth, and I quite like it. But I was very tired after playing a futsal game, so it tasted too heavy for me today. Then I decided trying this wine at a warmer temperature.

I heated it to around 40℃ (or possibly slightly higher?) The acidity was activated but the mildness was also increased. The balance of the acidity and mildness was good, and the acidity felt more gentle than when it was cold for my tired body.

I don't think every wine can be heated, but I just found some of them could be. "Kan-wine" has some possibility for me now.

* Every sake is not good heated either. It must be a well made junmai-shu. Many of them are designed to be drunk warm.

Sake wa Junmai 2012 (report #5) : Wineries in Beechworth

Continuing on from our last post, some brewers visited Beechworth on 10th July.

Bridge road breweries, nice pizza and beer tasting for lunch.

 The pizza restaurant is also a beer brewery, 

we took a tour of the factory.

 After lunch, we visited 2 wineries; Savaterre and Giaconda.

 The entrance of the cave (wine cellar) at Giaconda

 The cave is full of wine barrels.

 We tasted some very rare wine from Savaterre and Giaconda.

 The tasting was very serious.

This is very rare picture too, 

five top brewers from Australia and Japan.

Thank you, Keppell (Savaterre), Nobue-san (Savaterre) and Peter (Giaconda) for having us.

Sake wa Junmai 2012 (report #4) : Sake tasting in Beechworth

After the sake tasting at The Grace Hotel Sydney, we had some small tastings at restaurants around Sydney and one in Victoria.

On 10th July, some of our guest brewers visited the restaurant "The Provenance" in Beechworth, Victoria.

An hour flight from Sydney and an hour drive to Beechworth

 The brewers

 The Provenance : the building was an old bank

 Planning the sake matching with the food

 The owner chef Michael's speech

 The dinner was casual and the brewers shared the table with guests.

 Raw garfish, puffed rice, dashi lime gel,

orange salt, nori powder, seaweed

 Butter sauteed cauliflower, pickled cauliflower,

brown butter gel, candied pine nuts, scallop floss

Sakes from Shinkame, Izumibashi and Umetsu

Thank you, Michael and The Provenance staff for hosting such a lovely event.

P.S.

Sorry I did not take pictures after the second course, we were too busy eating and drinking!

Sake wa Junmai 2012 (report #3) : Lucky draw

The happy smiles of lucky draw winners.

Sake wa Junmai 2012 (report #2) : Breweries

Photos of our guest brewers.

 Ms. Ohta (Bentenmusume)

 Rei (Sakenet) and Mr. Hashiba (Izumibashi)

 Mr. Morinaga (Komagura)

 Mr. and Mrs. Ogawahara (Shinkame)

 Mr. Nagayama (Taka)

 Mr. Taketsuru (Taketsuru)

Rei (Sakenet) and Mr. Umetsu (Umetsu)

Sake wa Junmai 2012 (report #1)

"Sake Wa Junmai 2012" @ the Grace Hotel Sydney was a great success! Thanks to all those who attended. We hope that you had as much fun as we did! The response so far from the breweries and guests alike has been very positive. We are going to build on this to make it even better next year!

Here are some of the photos from the night - ENJOY!!

One week to go

Thanks for all of your interest in our event. There is only a week left and we still have a few seats available for last minute bookings.

The food is buffet style meals from The Grace Hotel Sydney. We will serve 37 different sake from 11 breweries. We believe they are some of the best sake from Japan. 7 guest breweries from Japan will be present at our tasting. They will be available for you to talk to and have a hot/warm sake which they will serve to you. They will heat their sake, so you will experience each sake at it's best temperature for drinking.

This is a unique and great opportunity you will not find in Australia. Please come and enjoy our collaborative event of food, sake, people and culture.