Sake On Air

Like most all of our listeners, we’re keeping rather close to home these days. The nature of things makes it a bit challenging for the team to gather and record, but on the bright side, it’s given us the time to dig through the archives and finally get around to editing some of our on-the-road interviews that have been gradually piling up over the past several months. Starting this week, we bring...

This week we’re tackling arguably one of the most misunderstood segments of the sake world: Kanzake, often simply referred to as, Hot Sake. For a complex web of reasons, the quality and general nature of hot (or warm) sake is still shrouded in generations of preconception and misconception. However along with an aggressive reexamination of “Why?” in relation to lost practices in food and beverage,...

To all of our listeners: thank you for your patience. As much as we go out of our way to include awamori as part of the broader shochu conversation, despite many months of listener requests, we have yet to do an entire episode dedicated to Okinawa’s incredible indigenous spirit. Until now! The progenitor of the entire shochu category, the now geographically indicated Ryukyu Awamori has been deeply...

As promised, we’re coming right back with Part 2 of our exploration into what goes into paving the way for a brand new sake brewery outside of Japan. We continue our conversation with David Joll , owner and head brewer at Queenstown’s, Zenkuro , along with Matthew Shaw , co-owner and head brewer Melbourne Sake , which if all goes according to plan, should be opening its doors in the relatively nea...

It now feels like eons ago when, only just last month, the global sake community seemed to have all flocked to Japan for the final days of the winter brewing season. My how the world has changed… It was during this time that we managed to catch up with David Joll , owner and head brewer at Queenstown’s pioneering sake brewery, Zenkuro , and Mathew Kingsley-Shaw , co-owner and head brewer at the so...

Continuing with our Meet Your Hosts series, this week we bring you interviews with another pair from the team here at Sake On Air. First up we have Marie Nagata , interviewed by John Gauntner – a bit of an interesting dynamic, as it was Marie’s participation in John’s Sake Professional Course and the community of sake lovers and sake-curious who shared that experience with her that initially lured...

This week we zone in on sake in the U.K. as we welcome the founder and owner of Tengu Sake , Oliver Hilton Johnson to the show. Oliver’s carefully curated portfolio and user-friendly communication are just a handful of the reasons that Tengu Sake has been selected as the Specialist Merchant of the Year in the Sake category for the International Wine Challenge four years running. From Oliver’s firs...

This week it’s time once again to take a moment to get to know the team here at Sake On Air. We first aired one of these episodes back in October ( Episode 27 ), where you got to know Sebastie Lemoine and Christopher Pellegrini ; aka, “little Chris”. This week you’ll be hearing from Christopher’s sake-inspired counterpart, Chris Hughes (aka, “big Chris”) along with our quiet champion behind the sc...

What exactly is the scent of sake? For our final episode of 2019, Chris Hughes , Rebekah Wilson-Lye , and Sebastie Lemoine gather to discuss the nature and role of aroma in sake. Seeing as how the smells that we experience impart so much influence on our perception of taste and our associated memories, this is a topic that arguably carries as much weight as any in the dialogue of sake. From person...

We’ve been doing this for an entire year (and then some) already! To commemorate we decided to get the entire cast together (minus John , sadly, who was fully there in spirit) to talk about the nature of the show itself, as well as address a few audience and listener questions, in front of a small live audience in Tokyo back on November 25 th .  The format this week is a bit unique, as the sh...

It was right around this very same time last year that we sat down with a whole slew of splendid bartenders and mixologists to discuss shochu following their tour across Kyushu. This week, we’ve done it again! Only this time instead of trying to squeeze a large group into a single episode, we pulled aside a single specialist – the one-and-only Philip Duff – to explore shochu in the context of the...

Sake On Air has taken the show on the road! Well, sort of. The gang isn’t all here, but Justin recently spent a bit of time in the Pacific Northwest and along the way managed to sit down with a few of the individuals helping to shape the future of sake in the region. While in Portland Oregon for the annual Portland Fermentation Festival Justin sat down with sake samurai and vice president of the s...

Over the past year of doing Sake On Air, believe it or not, one of the most highly requested show topics that we get from our listeners has been for us to do a deep-dive exploring the backgrounds and stories of your regular hosts here on the show. Originally a bit hesitant – the entire purpose of the show is to provide a voice to those in and around the industry that are underrepresented – we real...

This week’s episode is especially timely, as Justin managed to squeeze in an interview with Stephen Lyaman to coincide with the launch of his brand new book, The Complete Guide to Japanese Drinks , co-authored together with Chris Bunting, author of Drinking Japan , which released October 1 st in the U.S. and is already largely available internationally thanks to Tuttle Publishing . Those familiar...

Cody Brailsford is a rather rare breed. Now fuku-toji (assistant head brewer) as of this recording, at Watanabe Sake Brewery , makers of Hourai brand sake in the small countryside town of Hida Furukawa in Gifu Prefecture, Cody has been toiling away in the brewery for well over a decade. As more sake breweries open across the globe, and as breweries in Japan gradually open their doors (and minds) t...

This week’s episode is exactly what the title says: an interview with Shinichiro Shimizu, the president of Shimizu Seizaburo Shoten , better known as makers of the incredibly popular brand of sake, ZAKU . Zaku has taken both Japan and the world by storm in recent years, being awarded top accolades in just about every sake competition under the sun , while simultaneously establishing itself as a st...

When you start talking sake (or shochu), you don’t get too far in before finding that you need to address koji . That’s what Justin , (big) Chris and Sebastien set out to do this week. As Japan’s magical mold, Aspergillus oryzae , begins to gain traction, not just throughout the world of brewing, but  in the culinary realm and the larger movement reexamining the power of fermentation , the nu...

This week  John Gauntner  takes over as master of ceremonies, as  Rebekah Wilson-Lye ,  Chris Hughes  and  Justin Potts  combine forces to help flesh out an all-important and ever-evolving element of sake that sits at the core of some of the most important conversations: rice types. Aside from just the distinction between sake rice and standard rice varieties use...

The rise in sake’s presence at notable restaurants and gastronomic celebrations across the globe in recent years is in no small part due to the individuals that have taken it upon themselves to craft the physical bridges for transport while also blazing new trails in their home territory.   Albeit an entirely unintended development (story in the show!), an unexpected turn-of-events placed Pablo Al...

As promised, the Sake On Air team’s exploration into the sake-specific Daiginjo and Junmai glassware developed by Riedel continues with an interactive tasting led by Riedel Japan President and CEO, Wolfgang Angyal . Clocking in at roughly 90 minutes, this is by far the longest episode of Sake On Air to-date. Why? There turned out to be just too much great food for thought and insightful commentary...

The Sake On Air team recently gathered at the Japan offices of Riedel , renowned Austrian wine varietal-specific glassware makers, to meet with Japan’s President and CEO Wolfgang Angyal in order to learn about the nearly two-decade process that went into producing two pieces of highly influential, sake-specific glassware: the Daiginjo Glass , and the more recent, Junmai Glass . Over nearly three h...

A topic of endless discussion and debate, this week Chris Hughes , Sebastien Lemoine , Marie Nagata and Christopher Pellegrini are joined by Eli Nygren , kurabito (brewer) at Chiyonokame Shuzo in Ehime Prefecture, to examine what exactly gives sake its “local” profile. From rice to water, yeast to koji, people to practices, the number of elements at play that can enhance (or diminish!?) a sake’s “...

This week Chris Hughes takes the reigns as we set our sights on what feels to be an ever-moving target: the complex relationship between sake and food. While experience with wine and other beverages informs many expectations for sake, and a lot of concepts are somewhat transferrable, the reality is that sake is its own beast entirely. Many people in Japan, as well as internationally, have been doi...

We’re back this week with a boozy double-interview featuring one shochu meister and one sake maven. In the first half of this week’s episode of Sake on Air, Christopher Pellegrini interviews Maya Aley , the first non-Japanese to receive the prestigious certification of Shochu Meister . Maya has been living and working in Kagoshima city since 2011. Starting as an English teacher before shifting to...

EP 15 – Live with Andre Bishop and William Stuart In March we did four shows, all recorded live at the Aoyama Sake Flea , and who should we bump into than the Sake Samurai, Andre Bishop , and William Stuart , the CEO of Colorado Sake Co.? We managed to grab a few minutes with them to sit and talk sake. The conversation wandered from America to Australia as we picked their brains on topics like sak...