I was alone, now not so much.
I am just- a little lonely.
My initial tone for this blog, as
I had imagined it was one of a romanticized lone wanderer, searching for the
impossible: a deeply polished bottle of Daiginjo (the highest quality grade of
Sake). Trapped in a land where the finest pulled pork sandwiches rained down from
the sky every day, while more and more taprooms opened their doors flowing with
thicker, darker, “hoppier” IPA’s. Now certainly
this place exists, I call it "downtown".
However, now since years have passed
since I began writing this blog in my mind, that same sense of solitude would have
been embellished, a false premise; my desperation for “True” Sake was not that
far out of reach after all. The point is at
first, finding “True” Sake (let me go ahead and start using this term because
it will become ever present) in my native homeland was pretty damn difficult. However, now it is much less so.
I love NC BBQ. I am a very, very lucky man to have the option
to visit and indulge myself in some of its greatest incarnations available all within
a 20 mile radius from my house along with just about as good of a pint of beer ever created
to wash it down with.
However, about two years ago,
well truthfully after a lifetime of fascination in all things Japanese; film, food,
animation, art, and lastly Sake (properly introduced via a flight of three
small glasses at a sushi restaurant in North Raleigh), it hit me- Sake is
wonderful!
It takes on the beauty and
elements of great beer and wine, it dances the spectrum of flavors- some bold
as the deepest glass of a red Bordeaux, others dry and clean as the clearest Vodka, some even floral and sweet like a Lambic and all of these flavors and varieties are attained by just two, TWO, ingredients- Water and Rice; along with centuries of
mastering the art of production. What
rice matters, what water matters, what prefectures matters but you can pour a
glass of Sake that tastes like a mouthful of cotton candy and in just a few
moments that overwhelming sweetness evaporates.
On the opposite side of the spectrum there are Sakes as dark and
brooding as anything you could imagine, requiring a slow sip, rest and re-approach,
but still; made only from water, rice, and craftsmanship. (Honjozo, little different, I know- we'll get there)
I think Japanese Sake is
important. I think it's fantastic! Educating, discovering, tasting,
and learning to enjoy Sake here in North Carolina is continuously less
challenging than when I had first imagined this blog just a few years ago. “True” Sake is coming to our state faster
than you may realize. It’s on the menus of new restaurants, most specialty beer
and wine shops have a rack of Sakes or at least a few bottles, “Total Wine” has
a (terrible) section of U.S. made Junmai Ginjo's.
I want to help to facilitate this
exciting time of exposure and renaissance. I'll help point folks of
similar interest in the right direction and hope that a dialogue of interest
and discovery here in the Carolinas ignites. I have tons of photos, recommendations, tips, and most importantly know where you can and can't find "True" Sake around the Tar Heel State. Thanks, I hope you enjoy what's to come.
Thanks to Beau Timken, John Gauntner, my brother, my parents, and my wife Amy.
The first post…
Kanpai! (we'll get to that)
-Brad Russell
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