Sake mavens?

Though my family is rife with Asian influences of all sorts, I know nothing about sake and my mother, whose career involves asian art history, was no help.

At Thanksgiving I was given a bottle of sake by a fairly new acqaintance who told me only that it came from her home region. She didn't offer any more info and I didn't want to inquire too deeply lest it appear that I was trying to ferret out its quality or price.

Now, some Japanese colleagues at work are hosting a luncheon (at Meijii on Randolph--anyone been there?) and I thought it might be nice if I brought and shared my bottle. But I feel a bit sheepish about bringing it when I know absolutely nothing about it.

I googled a bit and found many informative sites about sake drinking and sake brewing and other general topics, but no way into decoding my particular bottle.

The lable has only 4 words of English, 2 of which are the place--Kokura Japan. Otherwise the label is covered with Japanese.

I don't imagine that your avg. western wineseller can help me and I'm nowhere near Arlington Heights.

Any suggestions as to where I might bring my label to get some insight into this bottle?

why don't you scan it and post it here?

Mrbarolo, I find these links helpful in aspiring to be a sake novice

From John Gauntner's website: http://www.sake-world.com/
The types of sake page has the Japanese characters (kanji(?)) for the different types/qulities: [junmai or not] daiginjo, ginjo or honjozo
This may enable you to decipher some info on what you have. The bottle may have the percentage of polishing (40, 50) in arabic numerals (as also the alcohol percentage (maybe between 10 -20?)) - the polish %age number (if it's there) would tell you about the quality level/type

Kokura, I google, is now part of Fukuoka prefecture. With that you may be able to narrow it down further. See 'Best Sake picks' and some info on Fukuoka prefecture sakes and this page which has a list of Sake Breweries in the Fukuoka Area (scroll down) and includes Japanese characters.


IIRC Chef Matsumoto hails from Fukuoka prefecture – though in Nov. '05 didn't have any sake from there. Possibly (if they are open) you could get some assistance there


Some additional information on the optimal temperatures for the various types of sakes can be found in the Sake section of the "Sushi Encylopedism"

edited to clarify

Man, you're good. Thanks for doing all that "leg" work. I'll certainly follow the links. I had skimmed the Gauntner site but hadn't deduced how I might zero in on my target from what was there. I'll go back. (The alcohol is 15%, but I'm not sure how much meaning one can extrapolate from that.) Thanks again.

Yes, take a photo of the label and post it. If not my wife, then my father-in-law can shed some light. One of my fondest memories of Japan involves visiting sake "microbreweries" on road trips and sampling their wares.