Compared to other spirits, sake is relatively low-key but it has been slowly capturing the palates of the Filipino drinking crowd.

As someone who’s very new to sake, I can understand how intimidating the Japanese spirit can be. For one thing, what the rest of the world knows as sake is really “nihon-shu” or Japanese rice wine.

 In Japan, sake is anything alcoholic and if one asks for it at an izakaya, one can get anything from beer to whisky.

Sake preacher Raymond Joseph. Jeeves de Veyra 

There is no better person to push a newbie headfirst into the deep sake rabbit hole than Raymond Lim Joseph, the youngest of the four brothers who own Philippine Wine Merchants (PWM) and its retail arm Ralph’s. and its resident sake preacher.

 “The local sake industry is in its infancy, but it’s growing fast,” said Joseph, who attributes this to the Filipinos' love of travel, and voracious appetite for anything Japanese from culture to food.

He said he was attracted to sake because of its simple elegance. “What really attracted me to sake is the mere fact that it's only made out of water and rice. And how rice and water can express itself in so many ways.”

He mentions that sake can be fruity, it can be earthy, it can be umami, it can even be woody as some are aged in barrels like wine and other spirits.

He goes on to mention that sake is gluten-free and is not acidic like wine, making it drinkable by those health restrictions like GERD or acid reflux. The alcohol content is around 15% to 17% ABV though because of the relatively lighter hit compared to other spirits, it can be very easy to overindulge for the unwary.

Besides that, sake has a much lower price point compared to other liquors and spirits with a small 720ml bottle costing as low as P300. “You don’t have to pay so much money to get more than you’re paying for,” Joseph said. 

Education and engagement are key ingredients in demystifying sake and growing the market. PWM regularly holds community sessions for both veteran and virgin sake drinkers. For the veterans, they have tasting sessions for new and rare bottles, as well as dinners with unique pairings.

While the spirit is stereotypically served with Japanese food, serving sake with Italian, French, and even spicy Thai food, have been fantastic pairings.

Miggy Nazareno with his PowerPoint presentation. Jeeves de Veyra 

For newbies, there are educational sessions. Think of these like a Sake 101. PWM educator Miggy Nazareno, who works under Joseph, geeks out covering the origins, brewing, rice polishing, multiple fermentations, and other technical aspects of sake.

What I wanted from the session was to make sense of a sake label. Even if I used Google Translate to decipher the Japanese words, it was still alien to me. What does a “Gekkeikan Horin Junmai Daiginjo 50” mean?

Sake bottles in the chiller. Jeeves de Veyra 

Nazareno started out by talking about the two major categories of sake — junmai and non-junmai. Junmai is made with water and rice, non-junmai sakes have added ingredients such as alcohol to boost its strength. He then talked at length about the special rice used for sake. In summary, the outer shell has more protein, and the dense core has more starch. Rice is inoculated with a mold called koji, also used in making soy sauce. When fermented, the protein turns to amino acids which account for savory and umami flavors, and starch turns into sugar which accounts for the sweet notes.

The number on a sake’s label indicates how much of the rice remains after polishing. For example, a 70 would mean that 70% of the rice remains with 30% of it polished off. The higher the number, the more of the outer protein is used, the more umami and savory the sake. 

The lower the number, the more time and effort was used to polish off the outer protein, the more of the starchy core is used and, thus the sweeter the sake.

According to Joseph, sake is best served in wine glasses. The experience is also that of appreciating wine — sniff to get the aromas, sip to get a small bit of sake in, and swirl to let the sake linger and taste all the flavors the sake has to offer.

Hakushika. Jeeves de Veyra The square wooden cups are used for traditional and ritual drinking, or for barrel aged sake, usually cedar, to highlight the wood notes.

Sake is also best served cold, specially the sweeter, fruitier types. The ones that are usually served hot are the more affordable umami savory sake that are chugged down on a night out at the izakaya.

Nazareno let the class sip a Hakushika Junmai Chokara 70. These are the sake in big 1.8 liter bottles usually on display at Japanese restaurants. “Chokara” indicates that the sake is dry and with 70% , it did taste more savory much like boozy cooked rice.

When the number hits below 60, there are additional words. “Ginjo” means the polish is between 50% and 60% and will have a nice balance of savory and sweet. “Daiginjo” means that the polish is below 50% and will tend to be on the sweet side.

Gekkeikan. Jeeves de Veyra 

The next sake that was sipped was the Gekkeikan Horin Junmai Daiginjo 50. At the higher end of a daiginjo, this was a lot sweeter than the Hakushika with notes of bubble gum on the nose and the palate. I knew the 16.5% alcohol was there, but I could barely taste it.

Before moving on, Nazareno explained the Sake Meter Value (SMV) which is usually found on the back label. This number ranges from -15 to +15. The higher the number, the drier the sake is. The lower the number, the sweeter it is.

The rabbit hole gets much much deeper when he introduced the styles of sake that depends on the yeast used, how the sake is fermented, the type of koji used, the length of time it’s aged, the way it’s aged with some buried under snow for years, some following wine-making processes such as sparkling champagne like sake, and the brewmaster. It goes on and on.

Amabuki. Jeeves de Veyra 

Nazareno brought out an unpasteurized Amabuki Junmai Ginjo Sunflower Yeast 55 to show off how different sake can be. This sake goes bad after an hour of being out of the chiller and has to be refrigerated all throughout the bottle's journey from the brewery to the PWM warehouses to the chiller at Ralph’s. 

Amabuki uses the plants and flowers around their brewery, including sunflowers. The aroma was of crisp sunflower seeds and when sipped, it was like a sweet cream cheese in liquid form.

Dassai 23 

Joseph let me sip a Dassai 23 Junmai Daiginjo. Yes, that's 23% of rice left after polishing. This is NOT a sake for new drinkers as this is a sake that will ruin other bottles later on by setting a sky-high standard for sake to follow. It was candy sweet on the nose.

Joseph advised to sip, swirl, and let the sake linger permeating all the corners of the taste buds. The first hit was the brightness of green apple, then I got more sugary sweetness and the distinct taste of melon.

As I was staring at my flute of that fantastic sake, he subtly motioned to the shelf behind him showing off bottles with much much lower numbers, including a Tatenokawa 8. He mentioned that there were mythical bottles with a number 1 (that's 99% of the rice polished off) somewhere out there.

Anyway, to encapsulate the sake label lesson:

• * If you want something umami and savory, look for a high number and a high SMV. These are best paired with more hearty food with stronger flavors like steaks, and grilled food.
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• * If you want something sweet, look for a daiginjo with low numbers and low SMV, better below zero. These can paired with anything but great with subtle flavors and as a dessert drink.
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• According to Joseph, there is a global push to have the sake brewers have English back labels. Locally, they will have QR codes on all of the sake sold at Ralph’s. When scanned, it will go to a website that will have all of this information including tasting notes and recommended pairings. Besides the monthly sake sessions and ad hoc sake 101s, PWM organizes Sake Manila, an annual one night only festival of Japanese culture where sake is the star.
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• Sake Manila 2024. Handout 
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• Now in its second year, it will give visitors a taste of 200 labels of sake with shochu, whiskey, gin, and craft beer. Industry experts, brewers, and brand ambassadors will be on hand to talk about and sample their spirits. As in the previous year, there will be a lot of food including a live tuna carving station. Joseph hinted that they would have other cuisine for guests to discover new sake food pairings.

Sake Manila will be held at the Grand Ballroom of Okada Manila on May 23, 2025 with tickets priced at P6,000 each. Doors open at 5 p.m.