Hachidori Junmai Sake

Hachidori Junmai is the entry point to the hummingbird sake brewed by Stuart Morris at Shindo Brewery in Yamagata Prefecture, a tenth-generation family house set among mountain water and its own rice fields. Morris is a Bostonian who spent 25 years chasing sake, passed the Kikisake-shi sommelier exam in Tokyo in 2010 entirely in Japanese, then spent three years cleaning and working unpaid in Japanese breweries before apprenticing under master brewer Masanobu Shindo and eventually earning the chance to brew alongside him; Hachidori, named for the idea that if a bird that small can hover, anything is possible, launched in the United States in 2024 through Napa's John Anthony Wine & Spirits. The Junmai is brewed from premium sake rice grown at the brewery and pristine Yamagata mountain water with no added distilled alcohol, bottled in pale blue glass in a 720ml bottle, and the producer describes it as light and bright, with cucumber, green apple, steamed rice and citrus zest, an umami mid-palate and a clean, dry finish. Serve it chilled or at room temperature with sashimi, grilled fish, tempura or a bowl of ramen; it also takes gentle warming on a cold night.

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