Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Morinokura Sake Dinner at Komeyui Melbourne



Morinokura Sake brewery's owner, Mr. Kazuhiro Morinaga, will come to Komeyui Japanese Restaurant in Port Melbourne on 28th May.
He will bring 7 different Sake for matching with Komeyui's grand menu.

Please book in advance to secure your seat.
tel: 03 9646 2296



Thursday, May 15, 2014

Sake Events in May 2014

We have some Sake events in May 2014.

Sun 18th May
   "Sake-tasting lunch, session 2"
   at NOM restaurant in Darlinghurst, Sydney

Tue 27th May
   "Morinokura Sake Matching Dinner"
   at UME restaurant in Surry Hills, Sydney

Wed 28th May
   "Morinokura Sake Night"
   at KOMEYUI restaturant in Port Melbourne, Melbourne

Fri 30th May - Sun 1st June
   "Good Food and Wine Show 2014" in Melbourne


We will have several different Sake events in June, too.

Friday, November 15, 2013

Christmas Giveaway 2013

* This giveaway is closed. We will inform the winners at this blog on 18th December. 


Sakenet Australia has put together 2 giveaway specials to show our appreciation for your support of Sakenet Australia.


Giveaway One: For Our Customers
All online orders between 15th Nov to 15th Dec 2013 go into the draw to win 1 of 3 prizes.
Order now at "www.sakenet.com.au"

Prizes:
   1st prize - Taketsuru Junmai Daiginjo 11BY 720ml
   2nd prize - Chikusen Junmai Umeshu 500ml
   3rd prize - Tokkuri & two Sake cups


Giveaway Two: For Our Facebook Page Followers
If you have been one of out Facebook followers, you are already registered to this campaign. If not, please "like" our facebook page until 15th December 2013.
Follow us on "www.facebook.com/sakenet"

Prizes:
   1st prize - Okuharima Junmai Ginjo Shimomura 16BY 720ml
   2nd prize - Hiokizakura Junmai Tamasakae 720ml
   3rd prize - Two Sake cups

*These campaigns will close at midnight 15th December 2013.
The winners' name will be announced on out website and/or facebook page.
The prize will be despatched around 18th December 2013.
We will send an email or a facebook message to the winners for arranging the shipment.
The shipping cost of the prizes will be free.
The shipping address must be in Australia.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

The first week at Sake brewery

There are some pictures from Rey in Tottori, Japan. (More pictures are on our Facebook page, Rey posts everyday. )

Another beautiful day at Hiokizakura Top-notch Sake brewery!

Hiokizakura Master Brewer Mr.Maeda preparing the rice cooling machine for the upcoming Sake season.

Moving a 4800L Sake tank.

 Everyday the magic Bento Fairy brings me my dinner.

 
Most of the brewers are still busy with the rice harvest, so it's pretty lonely in the big brewery at the moment, in the mean time my amphibious friends at Hiokizakura keep me company!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Six months with brewers

From the next week, Sakenet staff Rey will work and learn about Sake brewing at Hiokizakura (Yamane brewery in Tottori) for 6 months. He will be reporting his experiences here and our facebook page.

Rey is holding a magnum Sake bottle
at a famous Sake store 'Yamamasu' in Tottori

We have planed it since a few years ago. Finally we run this project. We would like to understand more about Sake (including culture) and share the information to Australian people.

Sunday, September 1, 2013

Hira-hai (shallow Sake cup)

This is a document that Mr. Masasuke Umetsu (president of Umetsu brewery) made for explaining about "Hira-hai". We used this document at the Good Food & Wine Show 2013.


Traditional sake cup "Hira-hai"
The ergonomically designed Sake cup.

The shallow, round shape of this cup is designed to allow your mouth and lips to form the best shape for enjoying sake, especially warm sake, and maximises the sensual experience.

The cup is round and made from fine porcelain.
The flat shape of the cup keeps your lips flat and creates a vertically narrow but wide space.

When you tilt the cup, sake flows into your mouth in a flat shape. It spreads over your tongue in a thin, wide film—you can taste the sake over the whole range of your tongue. Each part of your tongue is sensitive to a different taste.
You should keep the sake on your tongue for as long as possible to savour the taste—don’t send it down your throat in a hurry! With this cup, you can enjoy your sake to the full, every time you tilt your cup!

This cup only holds a small amount of sake, which is the best volume for drinking warm sake. Every mouthful can be tasted slowly at the best temperature.


The message written inside this sake cup is: ‘Sake wa junmai kan nara nao yoshi’. Junmai sake is good. Furthermore, warm junmai sake is the best.
By Hiroshi Uehara

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Sake is like Sake !

 The Good Food and Wine Show 2013 in Sydney and Melbourne is now over. We met lots of people at the Show who had a huge interest in Sake and Japanese culture.

 One of the most common questions we received was “ What is Sake?” Rice wine, Japanese wine, Japanese liquor was the standard answer; but when one more astute gentleman followed that question up with “how is it made?” I casually replied, “It’s brewed in a brewery.” To which he responded with, “so then it’s more like a beer…” well, no…

 This got me thinking about 2 big problems, how to explain what Sake is and describing its taste by comparing it to something else.


 My personal belief, after having learnt and taught languages for many years, is that terms like Sake should not be translated and “You can’t get wet from the word water.” (Alan Watts)

 When I hear the word wine, I automatically imagine a dark red liquid gently swirling around a delicate glass with a long stem and round bowl. I imagine grapes and vineyards and large oak barrels… Maybe some of us think of white wine, but in general, I think it’s safe to say, that, Australians, when hearing the word, wine, will think of the traditional alcoholic beverage made from grapes. So when we hear the term rice wine for the first time, I think it’s inevitable, and perfectly understandable, that we, as Australians, will consciously or subconsciously use our images of wine as a point of reference, to try and figure out rice wine, which will, no doubt lead to comparisons with our preconceived notions of wine, and judging Sake by the standards of wine.

 Sake, as many of us know, and many of those who tried Sake for the first time at the show found out, is nothing like wine. It’s not like anything! Sake is like Sake. It tastes like Sake and it looks like Sake. Therefore sake should not and cannot be judged against the standard of wine, because the properties of what makes good Sake are completely different from wine. Just like you wouldn’t judge a white wine against a red or even less a wine against a beer!


Rei Takahashi