Monday, March 26, 2012

Sakagura Tour March 2012 (report)

Our first Sakagura Tour was held on 12th - 19th March 2012. Sakenet Australia selected 4 breweries.

Kubo-honke Shuzo (Suiryu) in Nara prefecture

Taketsuru Shuzo (Taketsuru) in Hiroshima prefecture

Ohta Shuzo (Benten Musume) in Tottori prefecture

Kinoshita Shuzo (Tamagawa) in Kyoto prefecture

There was a tour of inspection at each brewery and we learned about sake brewing.







After the inspection was sake tasting.




We tried various sakes at dinner too. After the inspection and the tasting, everyone became a sake expert!






Of course, the food was super beautiful. Seasonal, fresh, local, well cooked.










Small trains run through the beauty of nature, taking us to the historical small towns where the breweries are.






We would like to thank those who joined us on the tour and the staff at all the breweries for making this a memorable experience.

- photos, words by Taka (one of the guides in this trip) -

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Mino Mosman & the long awaited departure date for the Sakagura Tour

Apologies for the reporting on this so late the past week has been flat out with the lead up to the Sakagura tour - the long awaited departure date finally dawning on us tomorrow morning!! I hope everyone is just as excited as I am to learn, see, taste and smell from some of the best Sake brewers in the world - so watch this space for reviews and photos of the tour!!

We had an informal gathering/meeting last Friday at Mino Japanese Restaurant in Mosman to meet all the participants (Anne, Joseph, Robin and Simon) and to explain a little more in detail how the tour will fold out. We all got the chance to sample some beautifully prepared Japanese cuisine paired with Sake as a little taster to what will await them in Japan. Unfortunately I will not be able to attend the tour and consequently got seduced by the excitement and anticipation that was in the air and drank a little bit too much (woops...). Looking forward to everyone's stories when they arrive back.