Bijofu Junrei Tama Junmai Ginjo

Description

I was really encouraged to try this sake by a poetic post from Origin Sake. Bijofu Junrei Tama didn’t disappoint me. It’s an elegant and clean sake with rather a complex aroma and taste. You can smell banana, pear, and honey melon with a bit of orange zest. It’s a medium sweet sake with honey melon and grapefruit notes in the taste, oily texture and balanced acidity. It must be great with seafood as all sake from the Kochi prefecture but we had it with Japanese BBQ at Hachi BBQ restaurant on Brewer Street (no pun intended) in Soho and it was a very good combination. Bijofu Junrei Tama complemented the food in a perfect way.

Hamakawa Shoten, which sells its sake under the Bijofu name (which means ‘a handsome man’) was established in 1904. The brewery uses amazing water from subterranean Nahari River, which takes its origin in the forest of Mt. Jinkichigamori. For Bijofu Junrei Tama, the brewery uses Matsuyama-Mii rice from Ehime Prefecture, which adds the character to the sake.