Tasting Notes: Divine Droplets

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Ginga Shizuku – Divine Droplets

This sake is drip-pressed (shizuku), a rarity by itself, and it is the only sake in the world drip-pressed in an ice igloo which is rebuilt every year outside the main brewery building in Hokkaido, Japan’s northernmost island.

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Ginga Shizuku Divine Droplets Sake Facts

Quality Grade: Junmai Daiginjo
Seimaibuai: 50% (50% of rice grain polished away)
Rice: Yamada Nishiki
Yeast: #9
Nihonshu-do:3
Alcohol: 15.6%
Acidity: 1.2

Brewery Facts

Brewery Name: Takasago Shuzo
Brewery Founded: 1899
Toji (master brewer): Tokujiro Sasaki
Brewery President: Shun Kohiyama
Also available in 300ml bottles.

Ginga Shizuku Divine Droplets Tasting Notes/Food Pairing:

Spice, minerality, and banana skin dominate the aroma profile of this shizuku- pressed sake. Medium-bodied with a clean impact, the flavors run the gamut of a well-crafted Junmai-Daiginjo- melons, herbs, vanilla essence and concentrated mineral flavors that keep the sake focused well into its long, ethereal finish. Truly one of the ‘Rolls-Royces’ of sake.
Pair with:

  • Caviar
  • Seared foie gras
  • Blue crab fritters
  • Grilled kobe beef with bordelaise sauce

Ginga Shizuku Divine Droplets Press:

94 Points, Stephen Tanzers International Wine Cellar, August 2007

“Very pale yellow. Complex nose offers saline, herbal and spicy notes, with a minty coolness. Wonderfully subtle, complex and precise, with a distinctly ethereal quality, high-pitched minerality and superb lift. Finishes very dry and persistent, with lovely lift. This is made inside an igloo in Hokkaido, in Japan’s extreme north, where below-freezing temperature prevents unwanted bacteria from surviving, thus ensuring a very pure sake. The clear sake is separated from the fermenting rice lees by putting it into canvas bags and allowing the sake to drip out overnight (as opposed to pressing it).”