Outdoor Sake

I hear that the best environment for sake tasting is a quiet room at a temperature around 20 degrees centigrade without any strong odors or smells. Considering this, I can easily understand that the environment on a mountain, where the air is refreshingly cool, the evergreen trees smell pungent, and birds chirp, and moreover, the presence of Mother Nature is felt strongly, is obviously not good for sake tasting.

Nonetheless, drinking sake outdoors is, of course, great fun. Drinking behavior of the human can't be explained by reason, you know?

So, last Saturday, we enjoyed outdoor sake at an open-air table in front of the Kumotori-sanso mountain lodge. The mountain lodge is located on the ridge extending north from the summit of Mt. Kumotori in Okuchichibu. We enjoyed sake at the ambient temperature then warmed.


Also, one guy in our party brought daiginjo sake in a Platypus bottle. We were not sure from which sake brewery this daiginjo came, but who cared? Sake is something just to drink, to drink as you like. We even warmed this daiginjo to enjoy (warming daiginjo tends to ruin the balance of taste and flavor).

Next day, we woke up around four o'clock in the morning, had breakfast, left the lodge, and stood on the summit of morning Mt. Kumotori.




Today's Sake
Hanayakana Kaori no Junmaishu (Gekkeikan Sake Co., Ltd.)
As its name indicates ("Hanayakana Kaori" means gorgeous aroma.), this sake smelled wonderful as if it were a ginjo sake, when I opened the cap. It has slight bitterness in taste probably derived from Yamadanishiki. By the way, I personally prefer Miyamanishiki to Yamadanishiki as a sake rice variety to brew junmaishu.
This 200-ml aluminum bottle is convenient to bring with you when you go for hiking.

Rice used: Yamadanishiki

Seimaibuai: 70%

Alcohol: 14.5%