Last week we wrote about an MBA from Suntory. This week we present an entirely different MBA for your juxtaposition. We would also like to say, We stopped in at this Gunma-ken winery a couple of months ago. We didn’t have much time, and they didn’t have a tasting room. Some bottles of Muscat Bailey-A … Continue reading A Tale of Two MBAs: Miyama Winery’s Muscat Bailey-A
No doubt most of our readers have noticed the exponential growth in the use of initialism in recent years. Condensing whole words into an alphabet soup of first letters may save time for writers and calories for speakers but may leave the recipient with a less than perfect understanding of what is being communicated. Let … Continue reading Drinking Our MBA
For Some, the Mama Duck We all learned about ducks and filial imprinting in high school or university. You remember, right? The first thing ducklings see upon hatching is mama duck’s derrière, and they dutifully waddle behind the behind, which is sort of how some people in representative democracies vote, going for the candidate of … Continue reading Ozenoyukidoke Shinnengoyosake (尾瀬の雪解け 新年御用酒): Try a Little Filial Imprinting This Winter
In last week’s entry we discussed the marketing of sake. We continue with that theme this week, focusing on the importance of the visual. “The consumption of craft products is currently flourishing….This study deals with consumers’ preferences in a context where...globalization is threatening traditional handicrafts. To analyze the attribute preferences of consumers [we examined]...three highly … Continue reading Marketing Sake: The Visual Element
Consulting the Oracle, John William Waterhouse Towards the end of last year we wrote the following in a private correspondence. Being passionate about sake is also linked to a concern about the future prosperity of Japan and the survival of things Japanese. This is especially important today given the devastating effect that globalization has had … Continue reading Marketing Sake to Age-of-Majority Japanese Youth: A Consultation with the AI Era’s Delphic Oracle
It is not often that we just happen to find a sake bottle with label art that perfectly matches our glassware, but that is what happened when we stumbled upon—no that’s not appropriate here—ran into—no that won’t do, either—encountered—yeah, yeah, that’s it—this Gunma-ken nigorizake which, according to one of our sources, is from the smallest … Continue reading Tone Nishiki Shiboritate Nama Genshu (利根錦 しぼりたて生原酒): Of Glassware, Sake Label Art, and Roaring Mice
Not too long ago we were in Iwate Prefecture, where we missed this gem. Fortunately, we picked up a bottle of Kikunotsukasa’s Innocent 40, “a non-filtered, non-pasteurized, non-hydrated,” high-end daiginjo sake, with 14% abv. Forty refers to the rice polishing rate or seimaibuai (精米歩合). Contributing to the Iwate influence, terroir, if you will, are Yui … Continue reading Kikunotsukasa Shuzo (菊の司酒造): Innocent 40
Drinking Japan 