16 TAKETO KANO, President of Kiku-Masamune Sake Brewery in Kobe, Japan.
The President of traditionally made Kiku Masamune sake,
Taketo Kano, speaks out for keeping the traditional Japanese diet.
Above please read his winter holiday card's message in which
he gives some details about how he and his company stand with UNESCO’s registration of Japanese cuisine
as a cultural heritage that needs to be recognized, cherished and returned
to.
Taketo is descended from the Kano family which began
Kiku-Masamune sake brewing company in 1659, making Kiku-Masamune (“finest
chrysanthemum”) the oldest family-owned and operated sake company in Kobe,
Nada, Japan. The 1995 Kobe earthquake which destroyed many Frank Lloyd Wright homes also destroyed the Kano family's beautifully made and old sake brewery, along with the family's sake-making museum.
Today Taketo is also speaking out for traditional sake
and describes how his company’s sakes are made with Miyamizu water from the
mountains of Nada; this water is considered “holy” water, water from the gods;
water free of turbidity and any contamination; water containing no iron but
rich in potassium, calcium, magnesium and phosphorus, all minerals needed for a
healthy, robust fermentation process, one which yields a refreshingly dry
sake. Sake brewed with Miyamizu water
matures over the summer, taking on a “well-rounded” character of aromas and
flavors by autumn. These sakes are known
as “akibare”, maturing in the fall, and synonymous with delicious sake.
In the photo above you see the traditional "Kimoto" method of brewing sake that produces the smooth, dry character of Kiku Masamune's sakes. The process requires at least four weeks to complete. Kimoto is difficult-to-accomplish in a stable, consistent manner and has been passed from one generation of sake brew masters to the next at Kiku. Today only a few of the 1000 sake brewers in Japan use this Kimoto method. The sake-brewers themselves are considered a sort-of Shinto priest, and must reside at the brewery during all the fermentation. They sing traditional sake brewing songs while making the brew. This is a tradition worth traveling to experience.
Kiku Masamune produces several traditional sakes, but one
of my favorites is “Taru” sake. This
ceremonial sake is a sake of Yoshino cedar as it is aged in barrels of this
cedar which grows in Yoshino, Nada.
Kiku-Masamune uses only products of its region: ‘holy water” also from Nada in Kobe, and
Yamada-nishiki brewer’s rice grown in Hyogo, Honshu, near Kobe, and barrels of
Yoshino cedar.
I call Taru a ceremonial sake because often large barrels
of Taru are offered at weddings and other festivities, and religious ceremonies. Shinto ceremonies which link present-day
Japan to its ancient past often begin with the beating of drums and the
breaking open a cedar barrel of Kiku-Masamune Taru sake. Served cold this sake is most refreshing in
taste with the slight hint of cedar making it delectable and enhancing to
traditional Japanese cuisine. I also
love it with most fresh cuisine. It is available only on order.
I champion Taketo’s speaking out for maintaining
the traditional diet in Japan. In doing
this he is trying not only to preserve the ceremonies of the past, but also
reaching out against encroaching Western fast-foods, which processed diet compromises
health. He is speaking out for
maintaining rituals of family meals, for rituals of seasonal ceremonies, for
celebrating historic arts. It would be
too sad for us in the West and for our children’s memories if our own rituals of
family meals at the table, when possible set with Grandmother’s china, went the
way of the poor Dodo bird.
In celebrating Taketo Kano’s speaking out, I know Julius
Caesar joins me in proclaiming Taketo Kano a Champagne personality. …. By the way, Caesar, Taketo enjoys a
well-made Cesar salad too. Taketo and I once
shared one, and he brought all what was necessary back to Kobe so he could
spread Cesar salad-making in Kobe.
Bubbles away! Sante!, Taketo.
HOW TO TASTE SAKE:
The cup used to taste sake at breweries and
analysis laboratories is called a
kikichoko. This is a 180 ml white
porcelain vessel with two concentric cobalt blue
circles on the inside bottom. The white
color highlights differences in sake color.
If there is turbidity, the edges of the
two blue concentric circles become blurred,
enabling detection of slight
differences in turbidity. Breweries and analysis
laboratories look very carefully for
turbidity in sake while it is in storage, as this
can indicate either inadequate
filtration or contamination by lactic acid bacilli.
4.2 Procedure
Sake tasting involves the following
sequence of steps. The procedure is basically
the same as for wine tasting.
(1) Observe the appearance, including
color and clarity.
(2) Evaluate the uwadachika (orthonasal
aroma) by bringing the vessel up to
the nose and smelling the aroma given
off directly by the sake.
(3) Take about 5 ml of sake into the
mouth, spread it around on the tongue,
breathe in air through the mouth and
mix it with the sake.
(4) Evaluate the fukumika (retronasal
aroma), which is the aroma that reaches
the nose via the mouth.
(5) Slowly evaluate the taste on the
tongue.
(6) After expectorating the sake,
quietly sip more sake and allow it to pass
down the throat in order to evaluate
the aftertaste.
It is important to evaluate both the
orthonasal aroma, which is the aroma
sensed when the vessel is brought near
the nose before tasting, and the
retronasal aroma, which is the aroma
sensed while the sake is in the mouth.
The entire tongue should be used to
evaluate the taste. This is because the
tip of the tongue is sensitive to all
tastes, and the back of the tongue is sensitive to
acidity and bitterness.
Please look on the Internet for a photo of the traditional white cup with a blue swirl. I was unable to insert a photo here.
Rebecca, modern-day wine-expert and ‘nose’, never dreamed she’d become a wine-detective
too. But when Doctor ‘47 and his dark forces continue saturating the market
with chemically made copy-wines, ready to decimate anyone in their way,
especially Rebecca, she travels across time and space—escorted by Julius
Caesar, Wolfgang Puck and Julia Child—to find the first vine. Will Rebecca
prevail and save wine for Pharaoh Narmer to sign peace treaties with it in 3000
B.C.; for King Nestor to inherit wine and with it postpone the Trojan War in
1250 B.C.? Indeed will Rebecca with Caesar invent Champagne in 50 B.C. and foil
Doctor ‘47?
When Madeleine de Jean opened the
first wine bar in the US in New Orleans with Chef Paul Prudhomme and became the
first woman sommelier in the world, she was expanding her dramatic talents from
stage and screen which had been honed at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and
Paris’s Comedie Francaise Conservatoire.
Her detecting and tasting in archives and vineyards for decades results in The Night Julius Caesar Invented Champagne, in
which ‘Madam Champagne’ continues sharing her beliefs in the civilizing effects
of wine and Champagne. http://champagnetoujours.blogspot.com
