The Kokuryo Brewing Company Brewery
This brewery is located in the Fukui Prefecture.
Sake made from soft water tends to pick up subtle flavor nuances that are not detectable in the crisp, dry sakes made from mineral-rich hard water. At the ginjo level they are multi-layered and complex, and It is not always easy to describe their qualities in words.
Among the soft-water breweries of Japan Kokuryu is perhaps the most famous. Its water is drawn from the subterranean flow of of Kuzuryugawa (Nine-Headed Dragon River), famed since ancient times for its delicious taste. Kokuryu's founder, Nizaemon Ishidaya, built the original brewery in 1804 in the vicinity of Eihei-ji, the main temple of the Soto Zen sect. Nizaemon's descendants have been making sake there ever since.
Kokuryu labels resound with deep flavor, but what makes them unique is their overall finesse. Often sakes with a big taste profile become muddied by amino acids and other fermentation byproducts and lack clarity. Somehow Kokuryu manages to avoid this, bringing rich flavor and delicate balance together in a unique expression of the sake-maker's art.
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Double Diamond by Schrader Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon stands to outshine the award-winning 2019 vintage with even deeper concentration and complexity. On the nose, the wine leaps from the glass with ripe blackberry, cassis, black cherry, and red plum, with a lovely herbaceous undertone. The palate expresses juicy red and black fruits with hints of black tea, damp earth, vanilla bean, lavender, and just a touch of flint. With fine-grained tannins and mouthwatering acidity that lingers through the long finish, this wine is ready to drink upon release but will cellar well for years to come.
Double Diamond is sourced exclusively from a complement of prime vineyard estates. Sourced from the same famed vineyards as its beloved inspiration Schrader Cellars in Napa Valley’s world-renowned Oakville AVA, including our To Kalon Vineyard.
Bastgen Berncastel-Cueser Weisenstein Riesling Spatlese Trocken is made from 100 percent Riesling.
Bright, clean, fresh and zesty. Grapefruit like flavors. Fruity aromas and a nice minerality, typical of the Riesling grape grown on blue slate soil. Round, rich and a very long finish. The grapes for this wine are vigorously selected. Botrytis is not tolerated. At harvest the grapes are fully ripened, have a golden color, and a soft tartness. After a long spontaneous fermentation in a traditional 1000L barrel, the wine just reaches the dry stage. This gives the wine a creamy structure that interplays with ripe yellow and exotic fruit aromas.
They meticulously tend 4.5 ha (11.11 acres) of which 80% is Riesling. The soil is made of slate. Their vineyards are located in Kesten and Brauneberg, on a steep terrace, and planted to 50-year old vines. Fortunately for Bastgen, they own part of the famous Brauneberger Juffer Sonnenuhr. The vines produce very small, ripe berries that are very tasty.
Review:
"This dry Mosel riesling is GG in all but name! Complex nose of white peach and red-fleshed vineyard peach with herb garden notes. Very elegant and polished this glides over your palate, the precision of flavor on the medium-bodied palate is very impressive. Then comes the wet stone and red berry finish that doesn’t want to stop. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold."
- James Suckling (November 2023), 95 pts