Ginjo

Ginjo — properly ginjo-shu — is a premium grade of Japanese sake, a brewed rice wine made cool and slow from rice that has been milled down to no more than sixty percent of its original size. That deep polishing strips away the fat, protein and minerals in the outer grain and leaves the pure, starchy heart, which a low-temperature fermentation coaxes into sake's most prized signature: the ginjo-ka, a fragrant, fruity-floral aroma of green apple, banana, pear and white flowers. Light, clean and elegant at around fifteen to sixteen percent alcohol, ginjo sits above ordinary table sake and is defined by fragrance and finesse rather than power. When no distilled alcohol is added it is labelled junmai ginjo ("pure rice ginjo"); plain ginjo has a small, deliberate addition of brewer's alcohol that lifts and sharpens the aroma. Best served lightly chilled in a wine glass or small tulip, it is the style that first taught the world to think of sake as an aromatic, fine-dining wine.