Wine by Bok - 9.25/10 Stars

I have reported about Asahitaka sake in the past, please refer to Asahitaka Tokubetsu Honjozo Yamagata Prefecture | Fine Wines Pte Ltd. I have changed my drinking habit and I much prefer warm sake over cold sake nowadays. Apart from health reason not to have cold drinks, when sake is being drank warm, it has it’s own charm and actually reveals the true character of sake. When sake is chilled, it masked some crucial taste elements like the sourness and acidity of the rice, and the taste of rice. Drink it warm is the traditional way of appreciating the true colors of good and bad sake. For my experience, when drinking warm, one can easily detect the unwanted acidity, a good Junmai Daiginjio should not possess any of the residual sourness and acidity from the brewing. Such is the case with Dassai 23. As you may have known, Asahitaka is made from the maker of Juyondai, it’s a rather cheap proposition compared to Juyondai, thus the unwanted sourness and acidity from the rather not-so-pure rice is exemplified. However, tonight I am in favor of Asahitaka over Dassai; the taste of Asahitaka is richer with full bodied presence, it somehow overwhelmed Dassai. Dassai has slight hollowness in the body, although she obviously has it’s own beauty of softness, elegance and finesse. It’s a strange match up with totally different price range and different category of sake classification. However, such is the fun of having comparison! (01/2024)

Wine by Bok - 9/10 Stars

This sake is a close cousin of Juyondai, perhaps the only relationship is that they’re produced by the same producer of Juyondai, Takagi Brewery. The price is cheap, almost like a house pour sake price. Honjozo means that it has a lower milling rate than Junmai (not quite as good as Junmai Ginjio), it’s made of 100% proper sake rice, and the rice is milled to 60% of of it’s original size. At 16% alcohol, I didn’t feel that it taste as high as 16%, more like 14%. I popped the 1.8L bottle, obviously I paired it with table full of Japanese food, with all sorts of sashimi. I used our Grassl Mineralite stemware to explore the bouquet of the sake; I wasn’t impressed with the bouquet as it smelled more like uncooked rice grain right out of the rice bag. Content wise, it was pleasant and easy, relatively crisp, sharp and acidic, however, it possessed relatively feminine character. I feel the content has no rough edges, which means it easily lived up to the claim of being a Honjozo. A great value for money sake that has not been hyped up yet. (12/2020)