I’m hurtling towards my half century, and whilst it’s still a few years away, the writing has been on the wall for a while. In 2019 I was offered senior rates for golf in Michigan. Twice. At least there’s some silver lining to turning five-zero, I guess.

Through all the bottles of Sake consumed chez Sake Matters, I can’t recall having had a bad one, one that I didn’t like enough that it was relegated to the drains amidst much cursing and possible retching.

It’s a centre of great rice production, has its own Brewers’ Guild (Echigo Toji) and a range of vertiginous mountains cascading clear snow melt waters that make for very famous pristine, clean, dry Sakes. Many would wager it’s perhaps the most popular place for consistently great Sake brewing in Japan. But does Niigata have too much of a good thing?

Ichi Koji - Ni Moto - San Tsukuri.

Many industry scholars agree that in making Sake, first in importance is the Koji, next is the yeast starter ‘Moto’, and third comes the fermentation ‘Tsukuri’. In this article I’m leapfrogging Koji for now to take a look at Moto.

No, I haven’t lost it and decided to reminisce about Antipodean star-crossed lovers Kylie and Jason, and their 1989 big hair video for Especially For You, but rather it’s an appropriate title for this blog about Tokubetsu: special Sake.