Tonight’s pairing: the mountain monkey from Nagayama Shuzo, Yamaguchi Pref (est: 1887) with a bolognese.
Pairing with meat or pairing with fish? one rule:mountain brewery = meat /coastal brewery = fish. They used to sprinkle salt on food before transporting it up the mountains. Sweet sake provides a great contrast to salty food as long as the acidity is well balanced.Richer sake work better.
This sake greets with a lovely fruity nose of chestnut, herbs, melon, pear. The palate is quite punchy with bursts of umami that fly at you like monkeys after a banana. Mediumish, tangy finish.
Like all breweries in this part of Japan, this brewery’s brewing is mostly YN focused but they also use a very rare legendary rice, Kokuryo Miyako, which was super famous up until 100 yrs ago.
