In Gunma Prefecture. All Gunma sake.
It tasted strong and dark. It tasted strong.
The first picture is a cake from a cake shop near the liquor store where I bought this sake.
Gunma Izumi Junmai Hatsushibori. A moderately large corkage is visible. The aroma of alcohol is tingling, mixed with a sweet aroma like calpis. It is rich and thick. Sweet, sour, bitter, delicious, and every flavor is strong. Is this Yamahai? It has a unique sourness and richness, but...there is no description of it anywhere.
In March, I went to Tsubame City in search of a fantastic sake, Higan.
While browsing Google Maps, I came across an unusual sake shop.
It was Isshu-An, which offers a selection of sake suitable for heating sake. I went there to pick up a bottle of Hi-Gan.
It is a small store, and the shelves are almost exclusively lined with sake bottles. There was only one shelf of four-pack bottles.
The owner talked to me, and I found myself listening to a lecture for almost an hour on the meaning and benefits of heating sake, and what sake is best suited for heating.
Here is what he recommended.
We started with cold sake (room temperature).
When poured, it had a beautiful golden-brown body.
The aroma is like candy candy made from tortoiseshell, and the taste has a calm and reserved sweetness from boiled down sugar.
When you drink it, it has the same sweetness as the aroma and a peculiar medicinal taste like an aged sake. Then there is the umami of rice.
I thought this would be the type of sake that I would enjoy sipping on, but even I, a classic lover, had a hard time finishing it.
Then, I finally got my fill of the hot sake.
The aroma was the same as the cold sake.
When I drank it, the peculiar taste was gone, and the deep sweetness and the umami of the rice expanded rapidly!
Wow, it's so delicious!
I am very impressed.
This is a sake that should be heated without hesitation.
I was not good at heating sake, but this opened a new door for me.
Hi FSB 😊
Have you been to Isshu-An?
It's a rare place in the prefecture where you can get Gunma Izumi, which I also love. However, I drink a lot of sake and drink slowly, so I can't go there often 😅.
Hi Jurian!
It was full of atmosphere that was hard to enter, but you were right to go there: ☺️
It was interesting to see the sharp style that goes against the grain of the world, like the fact that they have a lot of sake (一升) and that they don't have any sake from within the prefecture (lol)!
Plump honeydew melon, finished green raisins, fresh rice noodles Moderately oily Aromatic and rich Alcoholic finish with bitterness and burn, not obnoxious adult flavors.