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| - It is too exciting to (finally) have a sake distillery here in Toronto - granted though we missed the opening weekend, but still the awesomeness continues.
The decor is what it is - Distillery Industrial, but with the sake brewing room separated behind a glass half wall, so while the cooking/cooling/brewing/bottling process is going on you can watch all the work that goes into making handcrafted small-batch sake. Having been to a large sake distillery in Japan, there really is something in seeing how it used to be done before the days of industrial automation. Think of getting to watch furniture being hand-made in a craftsman's workshop after seeing the IKEA production facility. The tasting bar is a little cramped to say the least (right on Jen C.), but we got there fairly early on Sunday, so it wasn't too bad (yet) - when we left it was pretty packed (about 4-deep at the time)
We managed to get two stools, and each tried the tasting flight for $10 which gave samples of the Nama (unpasturized), Genshu nama (undiluted unpasturized), and Teion Sakura (low temperature, unpasturized) all of which were quite good - although I prefer the Teion Sakura myself (a little bit drier than the others). We also tried the Shiboritate - it was really nice, but not my personal favorite. What is interesting to note with Shiboritate is that it is like wine, in that it goes from a very "green" flavour to more complex flavours but over a period of days rather than months/years.
We also tried the Demodori Musume which is their first production sake, and to my mind, is probably the best of the current batch, although it will not be around for too long.
They also have sakekasu, which is the leftover (lees) after the alcohol has been extracted. It is a wonderful white paste, with a great sweet sake aroma that can be used in traditional Japanese cooking.
One piece of advice - even though there is marginal TTC service, I strongly recommend either (a) take the TTC, (b) take a taxi or (c) plan to make a full day at the Distillery - sake packs a real whallop that can sneak up on you. No matter how good the sake is, there is no good reason to drink and drive.
Cheers
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