At Mugaritz, sommelier Guillermo Cruz pairs sake and the avant-garde
Although Basque Country in Spain might not be your first thought when it comes to Japanese brews, two-Michelin-star Mugaritz is helping diners fall in love with sake by offering multiple pairings with each imaginative dish.
It's not what's in the glass of sake, it's the glass itself
Riedel's new Junmai Glass elevates drinking junmai, or "pure rice," sake to a multisensory experience.
Put the sake down, warm weather means craft beer
Although Yona Yona Beer Works is a staple for great craft beer in Tokyo, there are plenty of other hidden gems. Global beer-drinking afficionados share some of their favorites.
Hong Kong and Macau, the sake gateways to China
With tastes for premium Japanese sake on the rise, new opportunities to drink sake abound in Hong Kong and Macau.
Celebrating the Tokyo weekend with a glass of natural wine
Jose Moya (a.k.a. "the Spanish Hipster," a moniker that refers to both his country of birth as well as the name of his food blog) is, to put it mildly, a natural wine snob. As a purveyor of natural wine, he has a professional ...
At high-end restaurants, sake is the sommelier's new best friend
At restaurants around the world, sake is increasingly becoming the beverage of choice for challenging pairings. Ingredients such as artichoke, asparagus and fermented foods are kryptonite to most wines.
Sake company Aramasa Shuzo seeks new edge with techno partnership
Last month, techno DJ Richie Hawtin — who came to fame in the 1990s under the alias Plastikman — threw a party at The Hangar, a cavernous sake den in Tokyo's hipster Nakameguro neighborhood. A brown sugidama (cedar ball) hung from the ceiling in the ...
Whirlwind wine romance led to a brand of her own
Early in her career, winemaker Atsuko Radcliffe aspired to brew sake. Fate, however, had other plans.
'Doburoku': Reviving a rustic sake tradition
Sachio Egawa is a Renaissance man of sorts. A spry 68-year-old with a jokey manner and a full head of black hair, he raises his own cows, grows rice and cultivates giant yamame trout in a pond on his farm in northern Iwate Prefecture. In ...
Tokuyoshi adds some creative cocktails to the mix
Japanese chef Yoji Tokuyoshi has been pushing boundaries with cuisine that reflects his philosophy of intercultural cross-pollination since 2015 — the year he opened his eponymous restaurant, Tokuyoshi, in Milan. A native of Tottori Prefecture, the 39-year-old chef left Japan for Italy at the age ...
Enterprising Aomori apple farmer pivots to boutique hard cider
On a steamy June afternoon, the apple trees in the Tsugaru region of Aomori Prefecture are laden with fruit. Now, the young apples are hard green spheres the size of golf balls, but come autumn they will be plump, sweet and ready for harvest. While ...
Association aims to raise the profile of sparkling sake
Around the world, the sound of popping corks brings just one thing to mind — Champagne. However, a new organization of sake producers is working to tweak that image. Launched last year, the Japan Awasake Association consists of nine brewers who are committed to raising ...
