Vine Connections | Sake | Reviews Understanding sake: All About Grades What's in it Key Terms How's it made Where's it from Overview of Types Reviews

Cold Sake is Hot

July 2003

In The Clear: Sake has broken out of its role as a sushi sidekick and become a star beverage at restaurants all over the city (by Andrea Strong)

On a recent night at Chanterelle, Roger Dagorn, the restaurant’s wine director and a certified master sommelier, contemplated what to pair with a cold white asparagus soup topped with smoked salmon. This isn’t a difficult problem for a wine expert of Dagorn’s stature—he has in his head, and in his cellar, plenty of French whites that could do the job, like a 2000 Puligny-Montrachet. But instead, he reached for a slim green bottle with a screw cap. The chilled vessel held a Sake from Japan. The drink has a creaminess to it, a fruity nose and balanced acidity that he knew would work perfectly with the soup. He just had to persuade the diners to trust him—and give up wine for the night.

"Quite a few people come in who think they don’t like Sake, but once they taste these, they change their minds," Dagorn says. "These don’t taste like petroleum."

Sake is making a play for our palates in a big way: Importers are bringing more and more rare Sakes into the States, and about 200 of the 300 Sakes available in the U.S. are now stocked by New York restaurants. Sake is also showing up as a star on drink menus—and not just at well-known Japanese and Asian-influenced spots.

Unfortunately, many of us know very little about Sake, other than what we’ve picked up by drinking it in cheap sushi places. Even some serious wine drinkers steer clear of the mysterious beverage for fear of the unknown. The good news is that Sake is not difficult to grasp. It’s a breeze compared with all the vintage, regions, and varietals that oenophiles have to master.

 

Home | Our Wines | Our Sake | Press & Reviews | Our Distributors | Contact Us | Sitemap

Vine Connections
Phone: 415-332-8466, Fax: 415-332-8668, Email: info@vineconnections.com
Copyright © 1999-2004 by Vine Connections, All rights reserved