Junmai Daiginjo — tasting notes & food pairings

Junmai Daiginjo

Junmai daiginjō is the pinnacle grade of Japanese sake — a brewed rice wine made from rice polished until at most fifty percent of each grain remains, with nothing but rice, water, kōji mould and yeast in the tank and no distilled alcohol added. "Junmai" means pure rice; "daiginjō" means very special brewing; together they name a sake fermented long and cold from the heart of highly milled grains to coax out an elegant, fragrant, subtly complex drink. Pale and almost water-clear with a faint straw cast, it smells of ripe pear, melon, green apple and white flowers — the famous ginjō-ka aroma — over a clean, delicately sweet-savoury palate carried by gentle rice umami, soft acidity and a whisper of the grain. At around fifteen to sixteen percent alcohol it is served cool rather than hot, poured into a small tulip glass or wine glass to lift its perfume, and treated as the fine-wine end of the sake world.

Balanced15.5% ABV

Pale and almost water-clear with a faint straw cast, junmai daiginjō is the aromatic pinnacle of pure-rice sake — light-to-medium bodied and dry to off-dry, it leads with a lifted ginjō perfume of ripe pear, melon, green apple, banana and lychee over white flowers and a whisper of steamed rice. The palate is clean and silky, gently sweet-savoury with soft rice umami and a fine, low acidity, low in bitterness and finishing crisp and fragrant. At around 15 to 16 percent alcohol it is served lightly chilled in a small tulip or wine glass to open its aromatics, and shines beside sushi, sashimi and delicate shellfish.