ABOUT THIS BOTTLE

Masumi Sparkling

A sparkling sake crafted specifically to go well with Japanese cuisine—but don't let that stop you from having it even when you're not having Japanese; it would be your loss to do so! The second fermentation gives it fine, even bubbles that cannot be made with gas-injected sakes. The gentle whiff of rice is also inviting. This sake originally came out in 2011, but the toji at the time, Nakano, spent ten years before that to perfect it. The toji says: "We remuage (riddling—a champagne technique of turning of the bottle) and degorgement (getting rid of the sediments in the bottle) each bottle one by one by hand which take several months, so there was a limit of how much we could produce in a year. We have better facilities now which allows us to produce more, but since the aging process is so long, our products won't go on for sale for at least 2 years. We are still adjusting and improving; even this year, we've changed some things so I think the batch 2 years from now is looking really good.