Episode 91 Show Notes
Episode 91. This week we train our sake spotlight on another perennial favorite prefecture: Yamagata. Quite rightly known as the “Ginjo Kingdom”, Yamagata has one of the highest percentages of premium sake production of any prefecture in Japan. The Yamagata Sake Brewer’s Association has united the 50 breweries in the prefecture to focus their production, starting in the 1980s, on more aromatic, floral and fruity ginjo style sakes. There is no better poster child for this than the popular Dewazakura Oka Ginjo sake which made its debut in 1980 and was one of the first brews to help shape the style of the new “Ginjo Kingdom”. Join us and listen in as we explore, study and taste the elegance of all things Yamagata ginjo. #sakerevolution
Skip to: 00:19 Hosts Welcome and Introduction
Welcome to the show from John and Timothy
Skip to: 01:10 Sake Spotlight: Yamagata
Say Hello to all 50 of Yamagata Breweries! Check out this video:
The Yamagata GI Theme Song:
John’s Recommend Sake bar in Yamagata:
Washu Stand Taro ‘s Bar Raira
1-4-13 Kasumicho Zhoushan Building 3F, Yamagata 990-0039 Yamagata Prefecture
81 23-642-7502
https://www.instagram.com/tarobarlyra/
Skip to: 21:11 Sake Introduction and Tasting: Dewazakura Oka Ginjo
Dewazakura Oka Ginjo
Classification: Ginjo
Acidity: 1.2
Brewery: Dewazakura Shuzo
Alcohol: 15.5%
Prefecture: Yamagata
SMV: +5.0
Rice Type: Dewasansan, Haenuki
Seimaibuai: 50%
Brand: Dewazakura (出羽桜)
Importer: World Sake Imports
NOTE: Use Discount Code “REVOLUTION” for 10% off your first order with Tippsy Sake.
Skip to: 30:50 Show Closing
This is it! Join us next time for another episode of Sake Revolution!
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Episode 91 Transcript
John Puma: 0:21
Hello everybody. And welcome to Sake Revolution. This is in case you didn’t know America’s first sake podcast, and I am one of your hosts, John Puma from Sake Notes. Also, I run the Internet Sake Discord. You’ll find a link to that on the Sake Revolution site. But, for purposes of this show, I am the sake nerd.
Timothy Sullivan: 0:46
And I’m your host Timothy Sullivan. I’m a Sake Samurai, sake educator, as well as the founder of the urban sake website. And every week, John and I will be here tasting and chatting about all things, sake and doing our best to make it fun and easy to understand.
John Puma: 1:05
well, hello, Tim. How are you today?
Timothy Sullivan: 1:07
I’m doing good.
John Puma: 1:09
Not doing, not doing too badly, not doing too badly at all. the Omicron wave is starting to settle a little bit. I actually went out yesterday a little bit. That was nice. Got to drink some sake with some fun people.
Timothy Sullivan: 1:23
Yeah. And 2022 is starting to roll along. We are getting into our groove and it’s very exciting to be in a new year filled with new sake and new opportunities. Really excited.
John Puma: 1:37
Yeah,
Timothy Sullivan: 1:38
Yeah. So what is on tap for today?
John Puma: 1:42
well, two years ago on this day, I was getting ready to go to Japan and the second stop on my trip was to one of my favorite places for sake. One of your favorite places for sake. Uh, and it’s about time. We finally got around on the show to talking about this favorite of ours.
Timothy Sullivan: 2:08
Does it begin with yama?
John Puma: 2:09
It does. But now, now we know from, from previous episodes that does not necessarily narrow it down as much as one would like, but yes, uh, this is, Yamagata
Timothy Sullivan: 2:23
Yamagata, so our dedicated listeners have heard a lot about yamagata, but we decided to finally go there and do our, our prefectural deep dive. into the prefecture of Yamagata. Now, John, I know this is an absolute favorite of you.
John Puma: 2:43
Absolutely. and I finally got to go there, uh, two years ago after after many, many trips to Japan and a lot of desire to make it over to Yamagata. I finally got to live with a dream
Timothy Sullivan: 2:57
and this was your trip right before The panini. right?
John Puma: 3:00
Yeah. It is Tim, the panini, um, the big panini of 2020. And in 2021 and a little bit of 20, 22 so far. Right. When things were kind of about to get serious, uh, is when I, I came back to America, which, uh, was, yeah, so it was right. I was right there when there were a handful of cases in Japan. There was a lot of a big run on masks. I’ll tell you that it was really hard to get a mask in Japan at the time.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:25
That’s hard to believe because they have masks everywhere even in the before times.
John Puma: 3:30
suddenly everybody wanted them.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:32
Yes. Yeah.
John Puma: 3:34
so yeah, they, they were way ahead of the curve on masks buying.
Timothy Sullivan: 3:37
Totally. So you have some relatively fresh experience being in Yamagata. Do you want to tell us about your trip, where you went to anything? You remember, anything that stuck out to you?
John Puma: 3:47
Sure. So we stayed in, Yamagata City, so Yamagata Ku and we actually stayed in a hotel that was inside of the train station inside, like Yamagata Jr station. So very convenient for getting around. And the main reason to go for me was to visit Dewazakura, which is, um, you know, one of my favorite sake, a breweries, absolutely love their stuff. And it was a dream come true to be able to. Uh, to visit the brewery in person, uh, and then just kind of look around and see what’s going on in Yamagata what the sake scene is like the local bars, that kind of thing. And, uh, that was really nice too. It was a lot of fun to, to get around there. Yamagata very for a city it is pretty rural. There’s not much in the way of mass transit. Like usually.
Timothy Sullivan: 4:40
Um,
John Puma: 4:41
Uh, the cities in Japan have at the very least like a streetcar system,
Timothy Sullivan: 4:46
yeah.
John Puma: 4:47
you know, you don’t expect the subway everywhere, but you expect some kind of street cars usually. And this was just like buses. That was it. So it was a little bit less than that. I was like, oh, okay. I had to get used to that. It was a little, a little bit different, but, um, you know, we adjusted and found our way around and, and had some really great sake experiences.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:06
Sounds great.
John Puma: 5:07
Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:08
Yeah, I’ve been to Yamagata as well, but years ago. And I remember I probably stayed in that same hotel in the train station of Yamagata city. But, yeah, it’s a beautiful prefecture, lots of mountains, lots of snow in the winter and just a very, very beautiful place to visit
John Puma: 5:28
Yeah. Unfortunately when I was here, no snow, it was, it was raining. even though it was February,
Timothy Sullivan: 5:34
womp
John Puma: 5:35
but that is, that is, uh, that is climate change folks.
Timothy Sullivan: 5:40
well, when it comes to sake, Yamagata has a nickname. I don’t know if this is a self-imposed nickname or something that the world came up with, but Yamagata is known as the “Ginjo Kingdom”.
John Puma: 5:57
I liked that I liked. And I, and I, and I think I understand why given my sake tastes, why, why I’d be happy about that.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:05
so explain it for our listeners. Why do you think thats appropriate?
John Puma: 6:10
Well, ginjo flavor and aroma is usually associated with fruity sakes, big fruity aromas, uh, you know, all those, those melon bombs that I, that I, you and I enjoy so much, um, you know, a big bouquet on the, on the sake and then like a nice fruity, uh, follow up that, that kind of thing is what generally is associated. with Ginjo and that sort of thing is also kind of like what’s associated with. Yamagata, in a lot of ways with the I’m I got to sake, that’s what people think of when they think of Yamagata sake. That really strong, uh, Ginjo aroma ginjo flavor is, is really commonly associated with sake from that region.
Timothy Sullivan: 6:50
Yep. That’s true. And you know, when you say this word, ginjo, it’s one of the classifications of sake, right? We have three Junmai classifications and three non Junmai classifications for the Junmai we’ve got Junmai and then Junmai ginjo and then Junmai daiginjo. And then for the alcohol added, we have honjozo. Ginjo and Daiginjo so the top four classifications all include this word ginjo. So sometimes ginjo is used to refer to premium sake in general. Like not just one of the four top classifications, but when you say ginjo shu or ginjo sake, meaning the general vibe, you can be referring tothose top four categories. So you’re, you’re right on the money there. I think with a ginjo kingdom referring to a place that really specializes in this more aromatic style of sake and from all our past tastings, we know that’s true.
John Puma: 7:54
Yeah. And I think it’s really important that people understand though, also that as you pointed out, there’s ginjo the classification and then there’s ginjo, the word that can be used to describe a style. Uh, and there’s no. Easy way to tell the difference, unless it’s like contextual, unfortunately, and that it was something that in my early sake days really threw me for a loop a few times. I just assumed that if something was a ginjo or junmai ginjo was going to have these properties and well, not necessarily, that kind of just means the rice milling percentage. So it’s very important to know that when we say Daiginjo in that context, it’s really about the style rather than. than the milling.
Timothy Sullivan: 8:35
Right. So we know we’re dealing with the ginjo kingdom and I looked up one statistic that kind of also supports this title for Yamagata. So. A lot of prefectures you want to look at how much premium sake they produce versus how much table sake they produce and for Yamagata they have one of the highest percentages of premium versus table sake production. So I found statistics for 2017, which was a few years ago, but Yamagata produced a 78% premium sake. The nationwide average is 34%. So your average prefecture out there produces 34% of their sakes premium, but for Yamagata, it is 78% of what they make falls into these premium categories. So I think they’ve earned that title of ginjo kingdom.
John Puma: 9:34
Are we, are you trying to say that we have expensive tastes?
Timothy Sullivan: 9:38
Well, again, Yamagata is your, your thing, John? I
John Puma: 9:44
it was our thing, Tim. I just got abandoned here. Wait a
Timothy Sullivan: 9:48
I’m a niigata boy through and through.
John Puma: 9:51
okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 9:53
Yeah. So, um, you’re, you’re taking ownership of Yamagata for this episode.
John Puma: 9:58
Okay. I will take it. I am happy to take ownership of Yamagata for this episode.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:02
Yeah. So do You want to guess how many breweries they have in yamagata?
John Puma: 10:07
You know, I feel like I should know that. And, uh, sadly I don’t, but I’m going to say it’s got a, there’s a lot. There’s definitely a lot and there’s definitely not as many as niigata.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:20
well, for, for, for context, we can give people the most. And so Kagoshima is the least with one sake brewery in Kagoshima and. Niigata has about 90, 89 or 90 breweries. So that’s the most, so. somewhere between one and 90.
John Puma: 10:39
Um, all right, so I’m going to say somewhere around 50.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:41
Oh, that’s right. 50 50. I’ve read 51 in a couple places. So, uh, about 50. sake breweries. Bingo. You
John Puma: 10:49
I will accept 51 as around 50.
Timothy Sullivan: 10:53
Yes, I do. I do as
John Puma: 10:55
that. All right. Um, yeah, that sounds, that sounds. It gets it. That is a lot of breweries and yeah, I feel like there are a bunch, uh, there’s an interesting thing about Yamagata that I found when I was researching going there. Um, and that is that the most of the breweries are actually on the other side of a really large mountain away from Yamagata city. So, yeah, if y’all might got the city and then next to that is a relatively nearby essay is a mountain called Mount Gassan. And Mount Gassan is massive. Not in its height. It’s not necessarily a really tall mountain, but it is an extraordinarily wide mountain. It’s still, it’s still pretty tall, but it is very, very. It takes up a lot of, uh, of, of, of real estate. And there’s a lot of sake breweries that are on the, on the Northwest side of the mountain. And from Yamagata city, you’re talking about. Three or four hours of a commute to get over there. And so that’s part of the reason why I never went to all those other breweries that are on the other side of the mountain. Cause it is really, really far or it’s it’s let me rephrase that. It is very difficult to get to, um, on an Overland because you have to kind of go in between the mountains and through paths and all that. And it’s just, it’s just a lot, um,
Timothy Sullivan: 12:22
Yeah, well, this whole ginjo kingdom and 78% of sake produced being premium grade. This did not just happen by accident.
John Puma: 12:34
It’s telling me
Timothy Sullivan: 12:35
was there was a plan. It all began in the late eighties and the Yamagata sake brewers association got together and they established the Yamagata brewing research society. And. All the breweries in the association got together and focus their efforts as a group on, in creasing, the quality and the premium nature of Yamagata sake. And that bore fruit like 20 to 30 years later, when the quality of Yamagata sake really started to. Grow quite a bit. And I think in 2004, maybe for the first time in 2004, Yamagata won the most gold medals in the national new sake appraisal, which is the Countrywide sake competition that they have every year. So from 2004 on, they started winning the most gold medals, not every year, but many, many years. So it really was the result of them deciding to work together, back in the eighties and transition their prefecture into something really known for this premium style of sake.
John Puma: 13:54
so it was a, work of focus on, on behalf of these breweries and just deciding what they wanted their reality to be, and then putting their minds to it. That’s really interesting.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:04
there’s one other thing that happened as fallout from this focus on ginjo focus on premium sake, and that is the GI Yamagata. And we talked about this before, I think in the dewasansan episode G I.
John Puma: 14:23
And I, and I believe we also mentioned, uh, GIS for other prefectures in the past.
Timothy Sullivan: 14:30
Yes. So GI for those not in the know is a geographical indication, just like you have it for champagne Darjeeling tea in order to make a product that has this certification attached to it. You have to produce it in the region, in the geographical region, according to certain rules that are laid out And Yamagata was the very first prefecture to establish a GI for their entire prefecture. Very cool. That was in 2016
John Puma: 15:06
2016 area. And, uh, and what are the rules for, for this one? I mean, I know that they do vary a little bit from GI to GI. So what does, Yamagata have.
Timothy Sullivan: 15:16
Well, I got the rules here. The first one is the rice and the rice Koji must come from Japan. Water collected to be used in the brew. Must come from Yamagata. No sugar can be used as an ingredient. So no added sugar allows and then the sake must be produced, stored and bottled in Yamagata prefecture. And lastly, the brewers association conducts quality reviews on a regular basis.
John Puma: 15:46
one thing that really stood out to me as surprising is that the rice and the Koji rice must be made in. Japan
Timothy Sullivan: 15:56
Yes.
John Puma: 15:57
not to, Yamagata, fascinating to me. I always assume that like, when, when there’d be a GI, the first thing is going to be like local rice, local rice. So this is, um, that is very surprising to me. not, yeah, not disappointing. Right? Anything like that. I’m just surprised.
Timothy Sullivan: 16:14
Yeah. On the other hand, this was the very first prefecture to do a GI. Maybe they didn’t want to
John Puma: 16:21
you
Timothy Sullivan: 16:21
box themselves into a corner. Right. Uh, who knows, but, uh, those are the rules that I, I found on the Japanese government website for the, for the GI, for Yamagata. And, uh, this is recognized by the world trade organization. So it’s an internationally recognized certification for this sake produced under these rules in Yamagata.
John Puma: 16:48
That is really cool. Now, one last thing about this GI. if I’m not mistaken, Tim, I’ve heard, I’ve heard from you. That they’ve gone ahead and made a song for the GI, is this.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:05
Yes.
John Puma: 17:06
All right
Timothy Sullivan: 17:07
So we, we have to encourage everyone to listen to our dewasansan episode two.
John Puma: 17:14
please, it is just, that song was a whew. It was a hoot. Um,
Timothy Sullivan: 17:20
really good. It was a, it was in my head. It was an ear worm in my head for about three weeks after that episode.
John Puma: 17:28
Yeah. In the interest of, of getting a live reaction? I have not yet heard this song. So I met Tim. I imagined you have,
Timothy Sullivan: 17:37
Yes, I did listen to the, the GI Yamagata song. And I’m going to play it for you. I’m going to play about half the song that the second half of the lyrics of the song are actually in English.
John Puma: 17:52
Okay.
Timothy Sullivan: 17:53
So here we go. We’re going to play a sample of the GI Yamagata song.
John Puma: 18:36
That’s pretty good. Uh, having said that, I think I liked the Dewasansan one a little better. It was a little more catchy. This is good. This is also good.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:45
I think they did a great job with both songs, but I agree with you. dewasansan songs, a little catchier, but this one’s
John Puma: 18:52
special about That one. I got to say.
Timothy Sullivan: 18:57
but you can’t argue with a themesong.
John Puma: 18:59
That’s true. pivoting into the tasting portion of. Program here, Tim. We do have, I imagine a sample of local. Yamagata sake it with us today. Is that all right?
Timothy Sullivan: 19:11
That’s right? We have one of the most famous Yamagata breweries. Dare I say, the most famous. And this brewery is one that we featured on episode one of Sake Revolution back when we were podcasting babies.
John Puma: 19:25
Yeah. And that and that is the Dewazakura Oka, which is, uh, quite, quite famous.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:33
Yes. So this ties very much in with the development of that prefecture wide Yamagata brewing research society. So the sake we’re going to taste today. the Dewazakura Oka. It was introduced to the market in 1980.
John Puma: 19:54
1980.
Timothy Sullivan: 19:55
1980. So this, these are guys, this is early days for premium sake to be widespread on the market. And Dewazakura as a brewery, made a decision that they wanted to focus more on premium ginjo style sakes and this was the first one that they released and demand was off the hook for this sake. this is the old school ginjo and. This really ties into the history of that research Institute that they developed as a prefecture. And I know that, uh, the owners, over the years have been huge supporters of getting Yamagata more known as the home, the ginjo kingdom. So that’s been a long, long road for them to see the sake really blossom and become the poster child. This is the poster child for ginjo kingdom. I think.
John Puma: 20:54
It makes sense to me, I think so that, that stands to reason. Uh, and this is, this is, as you pointed out a ginjo in classification as well as style. So we, we mentioned earlier that you kind of go two ways with what that could mean in this case. It’s both.
Timothy Sullivan: 21:10
Yeah,
John Puma: 21:11
Uh, so I guess I’ll run down the rest of the. Stats on this one. So once again, this is the Dewazakura Oka ginjo, uh, of course from Yamagata from Dewazakura brewery and they are using, dewasansan and haenuki rice seimaibuai, the milling percentage is down to 50% remaining. The sake meter value is a cozy plus five and the alcohol percentage is sitting at 15 and a half. And the acidity is 1.2. I almost missed
Timothy Sullivan: 21:51
Hm Hm. and we’ve both had this sake plenty of times. So I don’t think, we’re going to have any, big reveals here. No jump scare.
John Puma: 22:02
No jumps cares now. Uh, so yeah, why don’t we go ahead and grab our glasses and our bottles and give this one a pour.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:23
All right. So it looks very clear in the glass.
John Puma: 22:28
Extremely.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:29
Um, and if we give it a smell,
John Puma: 22:33
Hmm. Oh, that’s just a comforting smell. Just a comforting aroma.
Timothy Sullivan: 22:38
smells like the ginjo kingdom.
John Puma: 22:41
Yeah, absolutely. Um, yeah. I absolutely fell in love with this sake a little bit earlier on, uh, during my, my sake tasting career. I’m sure we mentioned this in the first episode that, uh, at one point when I was really starting to get rolling into sake, they introduced an, a special anniversary bottle of this. And I was like, oh, this is new and interesting. And I bought it and that’s, that was my introduction to it. And I was like, this is, this doesn’t taste like anything I’ve ever had before. This is amazing. And I ended up buying, like, I probably bought like six or 12 bottles over the course of that run because I just loved it so much. Uh, and yeah, I’m, I’m still, I’m still a big fan to this day. It’s still a sake that brings me back and it always makes me feel, uh, all warm and fuzzy inside.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:29
Yep. Well, let’s, I’ll give it a smell and see what we pick up on here. overall lovely, soft fruits,
John Puma: 23:40
Yeah.
Timothy Sullivan: 23:42
I’m not getting the. Super juicy, deep, deep, tropical fruits that you get in some sakes, but more like a little bit of melon and some cherry. And the sake is actually known in English. The English name for Oka is cherry bouquet. And I think that really comes across on the aroma as well.
John Puma: 24:06
Yeah. And I think that cherry is not something you often get from sake. Almost always present in this one. And certainly is the case today.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:15
Yeah. And I wanted to mention talking about cherries is that I, I looked up what the most famous foods from Yamagata are. And number one
John Puma: 24:25
Speaking of cherries.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:27
is cherries. So Yamagata the cherries. on. So famous in Japan, they can be produced, uh, as a gift, giving fruit, very high quality, but another fruit that is very famous from Yamagata is pears.
John Puma: 24:46
Really.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:46
Yes. And I can’t help, but think I’m smelling a little bit of, pear going on here in this aroma as well.
John Puma: 24:54
that’s interesting. Let me, uh, let me get that under the smell and that I have that in my brain.
Timothy Sullivan: 24:58
Yes, the power of suggestion,
John Puma: 25:02
I see. I
Timothy Sullivan: 25:03
um, almost like apple skin or pear skin. That’s what I’m picking up on a little bit of that. It brings just a, just a hint of a tartness to the aroma. It’s not quite as, uh, Sickly sweet kind of fruitiness. There’s a little bit of tartness that you might get in a cherry or a pear that I pick up on a crisp edge. right?
John Puma: 25:25
yes, it’s fruity, but it is not, overwhelmingly fruity or overwhelmingly sweet. It’s just a really pleasant level. It’s like they know exactly where to hold back, where to
Timothy Sullivan: 25:35
Yup. Yup. Again, the B word coming in strong “That’s our, that’s our thing. That’s our jam. All right, let’s give it a taste.
John Puma: 25:48
Hm, you got started. I got smell this a little bit more.
Timothy Sullivan: 25:55
Um, what’s so great about sipping on this sake for me is there is not a hint of harshness to it. It’s soft. It’s round. It goes down silky smooth, but it’s not wimpy in any way. It’s got a nice structure, nice body, really smooth, gentle fruits, but enough alcohol and a very gentle acidity, but enough alcohol to give it structure, give it some body. I love it.
John Puma: 26:24
It’s funny. I think that in, um, when you talk about Niigata sake, you often talk about how it’s very, aroma and taste wise. It’s very reserved or pulled back. I feel like this is pulled back and reserved for Yamagatata like for this style, like it’s all, all of the ingredients are there, but it’s not just throwing it all in your face. It’s just kind of like showing it to you instead of just like, uh, you know, overwhelming you with it. And I think that’s one of the more pleasant things about this. You mentioned the softness of roundness really, really nice there, and it all turns into this really just wonderful sipping experience.
Timothy Sullivan: 27:11
Yeah, these types of sakes have to know their place. And if you’re having a, a ginjo again, this is not a Junmai Ginjo. This is an alcohol added sake. So it has. Rounded more silky character to it. And I feel that comes from the, the distilled alcohol that’s added to it. And I couldn’t agree more with what you said, you know, if you wanted that sledgehammer over the head fruitiness, you would reach. Uh, Nama sake from Yamagata and you would be happy as could be if you wanted that super fruit bomb, but this is really balanced and has a nice Restraint it is sippable, easy drinking. You don’t have to overthink This one, and you can just sit back and enjoy while you’re sipping on it. It’s just easy, easy to enjoy.
John Puma: 28:05
And then it’s why it is one of my favorites.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:09
Yeah.
John Puma: 28:09
I love a nice, easy sipping, fruity sake. This is so nicethe flavor doesn’t linger very much. It’s not like it’s not heavy. It’s just really, really easy drinking.
Timothy Sullivan: 28:21
So John, any other Yamagata stories you got for us while we’re sipping on this beautiful oka?.
John Puma: 28:28
Absolutely. Um, When doing kind of research for what was around the station, like what kind of bars were there? What would, you know, what kind of experiences we can have? Uh, there was, uh, a bar that we had shortlisted when we were at Dewazakura, we found out that this bar is actually favored by some of the people there and we’re like, well, that’s all the endorsement I need. So. So Myshell and I went and in all the photos of the bar, there were a lot of bottles on the walls, bottles up the stairs bottles against the corners, all that. And I had assumed that all of those were like decorative empties. Know, a lot of bars have empty bottles, adorning the walls, just kind of giving you a feel for the kinds of stuff they’ve had the highlights, that kind of stuff. But then we got in there and we started drinking a little bit. We found out that these were actually aging experiments that the, the owner is doing and all of these sake, all these bottles are sake in them. and one of the things that he did was, um, he grabbed a bottle from the year. Myshell was born. From the wall and then same sake from the year from, from 2020. And we tasted them side by side.
Timothy Sullivan: 29:41
oh my God. That is insane.
John Puma: 29:43
really crazy. Yeah. And he had a lot of like really interesting different, uh, stuff over there to talk about and to sip on. He also had to go your usual Yamagata delights. There was a lot of Juyondai that night. just a lot of like the guy was super sake nerd. And so going to a place where the proprietor is a super sake nerd and you go in there and you’re a sake nerd. You’re going to leave with some knowledge and some really great, interesting stuff. And, uh, fortunately for us, we, we did, it was called a TAROS bar. We’ll leave a, a Google link in, um, in the show notes. And I, I recommend if you can make it over there, if you’re happen to be in the Yamagata area, if you’re listening from Japan or one day when they opened the borders again, that place that you can try to be. Really fun times.
Timothy Sullivan: 30:34
I am there. I can’t wait to try this place, but I don’t think they’re going to have a sake from my birth year. I don’t even
John Puma: 30:41
I didn’t ask for mine either, but yeah, that was, that was a lot of fun.
Timothy Sullivan: 30:50
all right. What more can we ask for delicious sake from the ginjo kingdom, wonderful stories and reminiscence from your trips there. This has been a great time, John, thanks so much for tasting with me. And I also want to thank our listeners for tuning in this week. We really do hope that you’re enjoying our show. If you’d like to show your support for Sake Revolution, the best way to help us, out is to join our community on Patreon. We’re a listener supported show, and we really do hope that you’ll consider lending us your support to help us bring you Sake Revolution every week..
John Puma: 31:27
And if you’d like to support us, you want to go over to Patreon.com/SakeRevolution. Hey revolution. And we’ve got a couple of tiers there and you can pick the one that that is right for you. If you are not in a position to become a patron though, and you want to support us in other ways, there are ways out there. Fortunately, just listening to the show, you guys are really helping out, telling your friends is a great way to get the word out about the show. And, and of course the tried and true leave a review on your podcast platform of choice. Uh, it goes for apple podcasts, Spotify. All that stuff. Just leave him, leave a little review, tell people what to expect when they listen to our show. And that gets the word out about Sake Revolution.
Timothy Sullivan: 32:11
And as always, if you would like to learn more about any of the topics or sakes we talked about in today’s episode, be sure to visit our website, SakeRevolution.com for all the detailed show notes
John Puma: 32:22
Ooh. And we’ll we have, um, a link to the song, the GI Yamagata
Timothy Sullivan: 32:25
yeah.
John Puma: 32:25
the song.
Timothy Sullivan: 32:26
We will have an embedded YouTube video. You do not want to miss it.
John Puma: 32:32
Oh, I’m going there right now. Uh, and if you have sake questions that you need answered, um, we want to hear from you. Of course, if you have some, other sake prefectures with their own musical tracks. Let us know. I want to make an episode about that. I’ll be fun. Uh, reach out to us. Email address of course, is [email protected]. So until next time, please grab a glass. Remember keep drinking sake and kanpai