When it comes to sake, you can't get around the concept of polished rice. The purpose of polished rice is to more precisely control the ratio between umami (intent), miscellaneous and other flavors. By peeling off the outer layer of rice grains, it is possible to effectively reduce the odor (brought by fats, vitamins and other impurities) and umami (brought by protein), making the wine more refreshing. ——Supplemented by the low-temperature fermentation process and some special yeast, it can produce a rich fruit aroma.
Therefore, in general, the use of low-refined rice step (higher degree of fine grinding) of rice, the resulting sake taste more transparent, the taste is more refreshing; conversely, high-polished rice step-by-step sake, rice umami is more mellow, the taste is more intense.
For a long time, sake breweries polished rice with water, which did not allow for high-precision polishing of sake rice, and 85% of the polished rice step (that is, the proportion of the remaining rice heart after grinding rice to the weight of the rice before grinding) was already the limit.
Later, the Japanese invented the polishing machine, which can carry out more refined rice polishing operations, and it is already a routine operation to make the polishing step below 40%.
Soon, however, the sake industry was not even satisfied with 40% of the polished rice step, and began to compete to reduce the inner volume of the polished rice step.
The first to attack was the otter festival, they aimed at the lowest 25% polished rice step at that time, but when the distillery reached this number after hard work, they heard that the distillery had already polished 24% of the polished rice, so they put the rice back into the polishing machine to polish, and made a 23% polished rice step, so there was the famous "otter sacrifice two cut three points". (Two or three points means 23% in Japanese.) ）
With two or three points, the otter festival sat for a while in the top seat of the lowest polished rice step, and then quickly gave way, and some wineries began to introduce works with less than 20% polished rice stepping and then less than 10%.
The more representative here is "Rifle Super Polished Rice", which not only pushes the polished rice step to 8%, but also gives each bottle of wine a small bag of the same white rice, so that you have an intuitive concept of this polished rice step number.
Then there was the remnants of The Nizawa Sake Brewery 7%. At this time, Yukinokawa, who had done 8% with Rifu, was not convinced, and they did not stop doing two and did a 1% light - I see how you can surpass me? You can't always make a polished rice step 0% of the way, right?
Unexpectedly, Niigase Brewery has really made a "zero sound" of 0% of the polished rice step combination - of course, not exactly 0%, but 0% after rounding, so that is, its actual polished rice step should be below 0.5%?
This means that more than 99% of the rice has been polished, the material cost and time cost are dozens of times that of a bottle of ordinary pure rice, the wine is not fragrant, I don't know, the wallet is a pain - but it is a good thing to draw a close to the lowest polished rice step-by-step dispute.
However, in addition to the height of the numbers, it is also possible to roll inwards by spending time on the shape of polished rice. In addition to the "spherical polished rice" commonly used in the industry, the distilleries have also worked with the manufacturers of polishing machines to develop new technologies such as "flat polished rice", "ultra-flat polished rice" and "prototype polished rice".
"Spherical polished rice" refers to the grinding of rice into a shape close to a round ball, which has the advantage of being fast and saving time and cost. However, most of the rice's heart white is in the shape of a long flat strip, and if the spherical polished rice is applied, the heart white retention effect is not ideal.
As shown in the figure above, after the spherical polished rice, part of the retained flavor ingredient will be ground away, and the miscellaneous flavor ingredient that does not want to be retained will be retained.
Flat polished rice is to thin the rice under the premise of maintaining the length as much as possible, so that the distance from the surface of the grain to the center is shortened. The flavor ingredients are retained more completely, and the miscellaneous flavor ingredients are removed more thoroughly. It is said that flat polished rice with a 60% step fit can reach the same level as 40% spherical polished rice, which is a very ideal way to polish rice.
The Kaze no Mori series, which likes to make sake with new technologies, has been experimenting with various techniques that have the potential to improve the quality of sake. This time, they tried to use the flat polished rice technology, and it was the signature product "Akitsu Grain 657". Akitsu Noboru is Kazenomori's "imperial rice" with a prominent rice umami and a unique sweet and bitter taste; 65 refers to 65% of the polished rice step-by-step degree; and 7 is the No. 7 yeast cultivated by the company.
Such experiments are mainly to prove their own inference: rice with flat polished rice is more soluble, microorganisms such as Aspergillus can better penetrate into the rice, and have a stronger koji-making ability – even a 65% polished rice fit can brew a flavor that surpasses gin.
However, flat polished rice also has its drawbacks. Because of the thinning thickness, the risk of rice fragmentation is higher, and it takes a very, very long time to grind rice, resulting in the need to adjust the polishing schedule, electricity costs, labor costs, etc.
May be recognized by the industry, the demand for flat polished rice is increasing, Hiroshima Prefecture has developed a special polishing machine for flat polished rice, and let the manufacturers of the wind forest use, which further shortens the polishing time, so that the cost of the winery is reduced, and consumers can also enjoy more cost-effective wine.
Therefore, today's good wine recommendation is it:
Kaze no Mori Akitsu Straw 657 Flat Polished Rice Pure Rice Sake
Category: Sake
Origin: Nara Prefecture, Japan
Raw materials: water, rice
Rice species: Akitsu rice from Nara Prefecture
Polished rice step: 65%
Alcohol: 16% abv
Capacity: 720ml
Factory date: March 23, 2021
The best tasting temperature: 5 ~ 10 °C
Flavor: refreshing banana, melon, watermelon aroma, a little light rice flavor; the entrance with a rich banana, peach, melon sweet aroma, faint steamed rice aroma and a little umami; long aftertaste, mixed with fruit sweet aroma and light umami.
(Due to the difference in taste between people, the author's flavor description does not necessarily correspond to everyone's actual drinking feeling, and is for reference only.) ）
Rating: The flavor is superior to the regular "AkitsuHo 657" pure rice sake, and even worse than the "AkitsuHo 507" pure rice Daigin brew, it is a work that is quite outstanding even in the Kaze no Mori series, and it is highly recommended!
【Drinking Molecules】 is a self-media operated by Huang Shan, a wine columnist, aiming to popularize wine knowledge in an interesting way.