In Vancouver’s Granville Market sits the country’s only saké producer and brewpub with its own Canadian rice paddy. I think there are only two saké makers in Canada (the other in Toronto’s Distillery District), but this one in Vancouver owns a rice paddy not far from the city. It took awhile for the farmer/brewer to find the space that could stay drowned long enough to grow rice, but now he has it. And he sells his local saké at his cute shop on Granville Island, where he also ferments the rice alcohol.
There’s a tasting trio, charcuterie and there’s some ice cream. It’s awfully quaint. The saké is even decent. It’s made traditionally, and maybe once the paddy is more mature it’ll start producing really fine saké. Right now there are no Junmai Dai Ginjos on the saké list. There’s a couple cloudy, sweet nigoris and a Junmai that burns a little too much. But the price is right.
The idea of the brewpub is to sit down on the patio with a few tasting glasses, a full glass or a bottle, and snack on edamame, cheese and charcuterie or ice cream.
I sat down with my brother to compare the full line of drinkable options:
We started with the Osake Junmai Nama.
Nama means unpasteurized, which I love. They’re hard to find. They have to be kept in the fridge, even before opening (all sake should be kept in the fridge after opening, like a white wine). They’re fresher sakes than their pasteurized counterparts, but these one are young and…well, a little sharp. There’s an edge instead of a roundness to them. The Osake junmai is also a little yeasty with a metallic smell. It’s very sweet, and it has a peppery bite. It has water added to it, which dilutes the alcohol.
Then the Junmai Nama Genshu:
This has a higher alcohol level and no water to dilute. It’s even funkier in terms of yeasts. In my notes I wrote, “Bite. Sharp. Ouch.”
The nigori wasn’t too sweet. Often these unfiltered, milky sakes are naturally sweeter but this was relatively dry especially compared to the Osake Junmai Nama above.
The sparkling sake, however, was incredibly sweet. There was no sugar added, though—the sugar was from the natural sweetness of the rice in the double fermentation. It all depends on how much residual sugar is left when that second fermentation starts and ends. Apparently, there was enough.
Give this place a couple years and it could be making really solid sake. For now, it’s table sake. There’s nothing wrong with it. And it’s well-made and with passion.
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