 BMan1113VR (591), Los Angeles (and Dallas, TX), California, USA
May 14, 2008
First example of the style for me. Pours with a pale, yellow tinge. Weak legs. Aroma is light, somewhat earthy with vanilla and maybe apple. Taste is woody, light, then alcohol, and somehow finishes somewhat balanced. Mouthfeel is a bit on the thin side. The beer is crisp, but not fruity at all. I don’t really like the style, as the wood elements neutralize all the fruit elements and thus leave a magnified alcohol taste. Nice if you like rubbing alcohol.
muzzlehatch (4422), Burlington, Vermont, USA
Apr 6, 2008 300 ml bottle from City Market in Burlington VT (March 2008), served cold from a White Winter Winery glass. Utterly clear with a faint oiliness, minimal but lasting legs in the glass....spicy, vaguely nutty aroma is rather subdued, cedary character takes a little while to show up....moderately sweet on the palate, the woody characteristic is much more pronounced, giving it both sap-like and spicy/pungent flavors....alcohol is barely present, and this is perhaps the first sake I’ve had that seems to improve a little with warmth. My first taru sake, and I’m rather impressed.
RCL (948), Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Feb 12, 2008 Pretty good, not too much cedar flavor, just enough to add some interest. Just a tiny hint of heat on the finish.
IslandHaole (1026), Onna-Son, Okinawa-Ken, Japan
Oct 8, 2007 Just a hint of color, could be the light or this is as close as you can get to colorless without actually being so. Cedar scent with a trace of koji. Odd, smells a bit like one of those aftershaves you got as a kid. Fortunately it tastes much better (I’m guessing here, I never really tasted those Avon aftershaves in the car shaped bottles) the flavor is cedar, it becomes more noticeable as the sake warms. This is what sake must have tasted like back in the Samurai era, stored and drank from Cedar containers. As an added bonus, my girlfriend really likes this one! ;-)
My thanks to her for translating the bottle so I could find this one!
Kevin (1765), Colorado, USA
Sep 21, 2006 bottle. pour is s bit oily yellow and clear, like some parafin i’ve seen. aroma is striking, pepper, lots of it, butter, alcohol, and yes, the cedar is here too, it is really quite dominant. really delicate flavors that i am having a bit of a tussle with to describe, sure there is obviously some alcohol bite, but there is some cedar, bnot over powering, just hanging around and doing it’s thing. some rose water notes, really reminds me of unseasoned scallops. light fruitiness comes oput in the finish. not bad, a bit more "different" than suits me right now.
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