Free Saké at W Hotel

On Tuesday after work, my sister, Andrea and I met at Magnet at the W Hotel where we were THE. ONLY. ONES. who showed up for a free saké tasting. The boutique sakés were brought in by Asako, who works for Joto Saké, a distributor in L.A. The event is called "Palate", andi s a monthly food/drink tasting event that takes place the 2nd Tuesday of the month from 6-7pm. I have been to the event once before for a free tequila tasting and was the only person present for that tasting as well.

The saké we tried are featured in the W's restaurant, Rice. Since we were the only ones there, we not only got to try a flight of saké, but Asako left us all the open bottles which we casually sipped after she had left. I don't have much experience with saké, but I have heard that the only reason sakéis served hot is to disguise the cheap taste, and that good saké should be chilled. We were given small cordial type glasses for our taste testing.

The first saké we tried was called Kasumi Tsuru, which translates to "the crane of Kasumi". This was a kimoto extra dry saké. It was very good and to me tasted similar to a more oaky pinot grigio wine. She recommended this saké with spicy ethnic foods because it cleanses the palate.

The second was called Yuki No Bosha, or "Cabin in the snow" and actually has a clean finish that could be reminiscent of snow. The bottle looked like a vodka bottle which is probably why I liked it. This was a limited release saké. It is a Junmai Ginjo saké. Junmai means that the saké is pure and no brewer's alcohol is added. It is made solely with rice, water, and Koji. Ginjo refers to the polish of the rice and means it is highly polished. It seems to me that it would be quite simple to become a connoisseur of saké because it is so easy to drink.

The last saké was a sparkling sake called Hou Hou Shu and to me tasted better than pretty much any champagne I've ever had. It had a sweet nose but was still clean drinking. Andrea really took to this one. Unlike the other saké we had, this one is only about 6-7% alcohol by volume, compared to the 17-18% of the other two.

The saké was great, Asako was very kind, and we followed up by going to the grand opening of Firefly in Mission Hills and having some brie, chevré and other gourmet cheeses on breads and crackers. Mostly, I can't wait until the next "Palate" event. I'm only bummed that I missed the last several months. I won't let it happen again.