Murai Family Tanrei Junmai

What it is

Tanrei means light and crisp. It is a style word, not a grade. The grade here is junmai, and the rice is Masshigura, an Aomori variety, milled to 65 percent. The published yeast is the interesting part: 901 alongside Mahoroba-gin, which is an Aomori prefectural yeast. Local rice and a local yeast is about as regional as a bottle gets, and breweries rarely publish the yeast at all.

The name collision worth flagging

This is brewed by Momokawa Brewing of Aomori, which has nothing to do with the Momokawa brand that SakéOne brews in Oregon. Two unrelated companies, one name, and both of them were on the table that night. SakéOne imports this one, which makes the coincidence stranger rather than less confusing.

What the room said

Fourth, in a tight cluster with third and fifth. Elegant and dry, with melon and apple on the nose, is how the importer puts it, and that reads as a fair description of a bottle that nobody disliked and nobody fought for.