The 88th New-Sake Tasting Competitions were held in Hiroshima May 16.
This government-run yearly tasting, the only one of its kind in the entire world, is an important part of sake history and culture, and extremely interesting in many ways.
Over the past 90 years, it has been held every year, with two exceptions: 1945, due to the war, and 1995, when the National Research Institute of Brewing (part of the Tax Bureau) was moved from Tokyo to Hiroshima.