Okunomatsu Tokubetsu Junmai

What it is

Tokubetsu junmai means a junmai, so rice, water, koji and yeast with no distilled alcohol added, that also does one special thing it has to declare on the label. Here the special thing is the milling. At 60 percent this rice is polished as far as a junmai ginjo, but because it is not fermented under the long cold ginjo regime, it carries the tokubetsu name instead. A sake meter value of 0 puts it exactly at the middle of the dry to sweet scale, which is a difficult place to sit and stay interesting.

The brewery

The Okunomatsu family descends from a samurai house that served the Hatakeyama clan. Their lord was defeated in 1585, the ancestor became a rōnin, settled in Nihonmatsu, and made a living selling canola oil. Brewing started in 1716 and has not stopped since. The nineteenth generation runs it now.

What the room said

Second place, and the score that was closest to the winner. The brewery describes it as a mellow aroma with a deep richness, and says it takes gentle warming well, which is a note worth acting on. Very few junmai are recommended warm by the people who made them.