Sho Chiku Bai Ocean View Junmai Sake

Sho Chiku Bai, pine, bamboo and plum, the three symbols of good fortune, is the flagship of Takara Sake USA in Berkeley, California, the first Japanese sake company to brew in America, since 1983, as the branch of Kyoto's Takara Shuzo, founded in 1842, working from Sacramento Valley Calrose rice and Sierra Nevada snowmelt, kosher, gluten free and sulfite free. Ocean View is a modern junmai named for the old name of Takara's Berkeley neighborhood overlooking San Francisco Bay, and the surfer on the label tells you the intent: it is brewed with white koji, the mold used for shochu, which raises citric acid and gives the sake a bolder, tangier, more refreshing edge than a classic junmai. It is brewed with no added distilled alcohol from Calrose rice polished to 70 percent and bottled at 14% ABV in a 750ml bottle. The brewery describes a nose that opens on tart apple and pear and turns savory as it warms, with sweet white miso, oats, custard and brie, a crisp palate of green apple, lemon peel, wet stone and cream of wheat, and toast and white truffle left in the empty glass. Serve it chilled to about 50°F, or warm, with seafood: raw oysters, scallops, grilled lobster tail or steamed mussels.

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