A small primer

Sake 101

Sake is not “rice wine,” though that shorthand follows it around. It is a brewed drink, closer in spirit to beer: starch must become sugar before yeast can work. Everything you taste starts with four things — and KOKOMII is named for the first three.

Ingredients and brewing

Kome (rice) is milled, washed, soaked and steamed. Koji is then grown on a portion of that rice. Koji is koji mold — Aspergillus oryzae — not yeast. The mold’s enzymes convert starch into fermentable sugar. Only after koji has done this work does kobo (yeast) arrive, turning sugar into alcohol in a parallel fermentation unique to sake. Mizu (water) is most of the finished bottle; its mineral profile is a brewery’s accent.

The mash is pressed, often pasteurised, and rested. What remains is not a cocktail of flavours so much as a climate: rice, water, koji, yeast, and the patience of a kurabito.

Polishing ratio

Seimaibuai is the percentage of the grain that remains after milling. A bottle marked 50% has had half the rice polished away. The outer layers hold fat and protein; mill them off and the sake tends toward fruit, flower, and a finer texture. A higher remaining percentage — 70%, 80% — usually means more rice flavour, more body, more savoury warmth.

Polishing is not a moral ranking. A tokubetsu junmai at 60% can outrun a timid daiginjo. It is a choice of voice, not a score.

Grades

Japanese law names a handful of special designations (tokutei meishōshu). The useful split is whether distilled alcohol is added, and how far the rice is polished. Junmai means pure rice — no added alcohol. Tokubetsu (“special”) on a junmai or honjozo usually signals extra polishing or a method the brewery wants you to notice.

Junmai

Polishing: No legal minimum since 2004; many sit around 70% remaining or less
Alcohol: No distilled alcohol added
In the glass: Rice-forward, savoury, often a little richer. A table sake in the best sense.

Honjozo

Polishing: 70% or less remaining
Alcohol: A small amount of brewer’s alcohol is added
In the glass: Lighter, drier, more aromatic. Easy with izakaya plates.

Ginjo

Polishing: 60% or less remaining
Alcohol: May include a little brewer’s alcohol
In the glass: Fruit and flower on the nose — banana, apple, anise. Serve cool.

Junmai Ginjo

Polishing: 60% or less remaining
Alcohol: Pure rice — no added alcohol
In the glass: The ginjo perfume with a rounder, ricey body.

Daiginjo

Polishing: 50% or less remaining
Alcohol: May include a little brewer’s alcohol
In the glass: The most polished expression: precise, often ethereal.

Junmai Daiginjo

Polishing: 50% or less remaining
Alcohol: Pure rice — no added alcohol
In the glass: Silk and fruit without the lift of added alcohol. Quiet luxury in a glass.

Grade	Polishing	Alcohol	In the glass
Junmai	No legal minimum since 2004; many sit around 70% remaining or less	No distilled alcohol added	Rice-forward, savoury, often a little richer. A table sake in the best sense.
Honjozo	70% or less remaining	A small amount of brewer’s alcohol is added	Lighter, drier, more aromatic. Easy with izakaya plates.
Ginjo	60% or less remaining	May include a little brewer’s alcohol	Fruit and flower on the nose — banana, apple, anise. Serve cool.
Junmai Ginjo	60% or less remaining	Pure rice — no added alcohol	The ginjo perfume with a rounder, ricey body.
Daiginjo	50% or less remaining	May include a little brewer’s alcohol	The most polished expression: precise, often ethereal.
Junmai Daiginjo	50% or less remaining	Pure rice — no added alcohol	Silk and fruit without the lift of added alcohol. Quiet luxury in a glass.

Beyond the grades: namazake is unpasteurised and should stay cold; nigori is coarsely filtered and cloudy; sparkling (awa) is a celebration pour; kimoto and yamahai are older starter methods, often wilder and lactic; koshu has been aged, and drinks closer to sherry or walnut than to melon.

How to serve and taste

A wine glass is kind to ginjo and daiginjo — it gathers the perfume. An ochoko or a small ceramic cup suits junmai and honjozo, especially when you want the sake nearer the food. Warmth is not a crime: many junmai and honjozo bloom at nurukan, around 40–45°C. Keep the highly polished bottles cooler, around 8–12°C, so the fruit stays precise.

Taste as you would a quiet white wine: look, swirl once, smell, then sip with air. Notice sweetness against dryness (the sake meter number, nihonshu-do, is only a hint), acidity, and the length of rice on the finish. Then eat something. Sake is a food drink.

Store upright, away from sun. Once opened, a fridge and a few days are plenty — namazake even less. Finish the bottle with friends rather than with ceremony.

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