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Japanese Consulate organizes sake tasting
The Japanese consul to the CNMI is inviting private business owners and public officials to their first-ever sake wine tasting event next week.
Kinji Shinoda, the Japanese Consul to the CNMI, told Saipan Tribune yesterday that he invited about 160 participants to the two-day sake wine tasting event on March 14 and March 15 at the Japanese Consulate.
He noted that, while the event is only on an invitation-basis, the Japanese Consulate on Saipan would coordinate with the Marianas Visitors Authority to make it an annual mainstay at the Taste of the Marianas Festival this May.
The sake wine-tasting event would feature prized sake from seven of the 47 prefectures of Japan. The wine tasting event, which in Japan is usually hosted per company, is a “rare occasion” due to the many brands that will be offered next week.
He noted that in Japan alone, there are about 20,000 sake brands and about 1,730 sake breweries. While the CNMI has sake available on island, the selection is too limited, Shinoda said.
“The competition in Japan is very hard. The event would showcase very high quality and authentic sake, which is a very rare case for CNMI residents,” he said. He added that he also invited business owners to the taste test to instill interest in the product for the possibility of new business ventures.
The wine-tasting next week would showcase 12 sake from the Japanese prefectures of Yamagata, Iwate, Hyogo, Kumamoto, Oita, Mie, and Yamanashi.
The Yamanashi prefecture is known for its high-quality grapes, bagging five of the 12 slots for the sake wine-tasting.
Most of the sake for tasting have received awards, including Dewazakura Dewanosato’s Junmai sake from the Yamagata Prefecture, which was awarded the gold medal at the 2016 International Wine Challenge
Also highlighted wines include Daiginjo Sansui’s Daiginjo sake from the Oita Prefecture, which is the 2016 International Wine Challenge silver medalist for the Daiginjo category; L’ORIENT Le Mont Rose NV’s rose wine from the Yamanashi Prefecture, which got the silver medal for its category at the Japan Wine Competition 2017; and many more.
