Frankly, a potent potable is only as good as the rituals and traditions that come with it. Japanese rice wine, known collectively as sake, has some of the best. It can be served hot, chilled, or at room temperature, but is always best enjoyed with others.
Mirai Konishi introduces viewers to the brewers and journalistic evangelists who are maintaining and spreading the sake tradition beyond Japan’s borders in “Kampai! For the Love of Sake.”
John Gauntner will help introduce us to sake, because that is his job. He came to Japan purely for a brief adventure before getting serious about his engineering career, but fell in love with the country—sake most definitely included. He became the preeminent Western sake journalist and regularly runs sake tasting workshops for appreciative Westerners.
For the distinctions between the many different kinds of sake, we refer you to Gauntner’s publications. For the details on brewing see either Kosuke Kuji, who reinvigorated his family’s Nanbu Bijin brewery, and Philip Harper, the first (and only, so far) non-Japanese Toji master brewer for the Kinoshita Brewery. We see some of their brewing processes, but not enough to glean any trade secrets, which is probably just as well.
