There is a geek for everything. There are wine geeks (heh hehm...), baseball geeks, computer geeks, movie geeks, etc. You can geek out about anything under the sun. Check around the Internet today and you will find hundreds of thousands of geeks posting on their geeky blogs about the particular subject they geek.
I consider myself an amateur wine geek. There is so much more out there that I need to learn before I can consider myself a full-fledged geek, but I am working on it.
Today's Wine Blogging Wednesday is hosted by Rich at The Passionate Foodie. Rich lives in Boston and writes a weekly restaurant/wine review column for the Stoneham Sun. I met Rich a while ago when we attended TasteCamp East 2009 (another geeky adventure), hosted by Lenn at LENNDEVOURS, who founded Wine Blogging Wednesday.
Rich's topic for this WBW is Sake and paying homage to Kushi no Kami, the God of Sake. Rich loves his Sake. If you read his blog (and why shouldn't you?), Rich write about Sake quite often.
For this WBW Leah (who freaking loves sake) and I went to Sake Hana, a Japanese restaurant/Sake Bar. We have been to this restaurant before and had done a Sake tasting there before, but I had never taken notes on it. This time I brought the notebook.
We had six different Sake's, each with their own character and flavor profile. Unfortunately, I think the waiter just brought me the names of the types of Sake, instead of the brand name, so that is all I will be able to list below.
Dassai Nigori (Unfiltered) - Leah found this Sake to be mild and clean. I found a peppery lemon/lime flavor, with lots of minerals and a black pepper finish.
Nigori (Unfiltered) - Leah decided this wine was sweet as candy, like bubblegum. I found it very fruity, like a sugar coated and caramelized pear.
Nanbu (Nami) - Leah found tons of peaches, while I found this Sake to be nutty with some white stone fruits (yes, peaches, but less defined for me).
Dewa No Yuki - Leah said that there was a sugary finish, with some white fruits and grassiness in the middle. I found it floral and very grapey, with some orange rind in the finish.
Narutotai - Leah and I both found chocolate, although I found the smell to be more cake-y.
Ichi (Nami) (Unfiltered) - Both of us found this Sake to be slightly sparkling, very rich with a dark mineral finish.
The most geeky part of the evening was not us tasting the Sake. While we were sitting there a group of Japanese patrons came in and sat down. The proprietor of the restaurant came over to sit with them and the patrons brought out a bag with two boxes, each with a bottle of sake inside. They sat there for about 20 minutes pointing at one part or another of the labels, running their hands over the bottles, and turning it over to read the back label. I could not understand a word of what they were saying, or of what was on the bottle (all Japanese), but I knew exactly what was going on. It was like when a wine geek brings THE bottle of the night to the table with them and everyone wants to fondle it and read the label, just to be able to say that had done so.
It made me feel like I could get more into Sake...
