Hakurakusei Zankyo Junmai Daiginjo "Super 7"
"Super 7" is the quintessential “story” sake. This brew will pop up now and again around the globe because it is insane! Yes I said it! This is pure insanity in a bottle. When you are removing on average 10 kilos of rice polishings for every kilo that remains, you know the sake world is watching. Zankyo “Super 7” Junmai Daiginjo is a legend in the bottle, and I encourage you to read the little packet within each box. I also encourage you to be very careful opening the box if you chilled the sake in the box, as each bottle is autographed and the ink blotches when it’s cold! (Perhaps chill the bottle separately) – Ummmm Yes! I said autographed – so that should tell you something!
Basically it takes 350 hours of rice polishing to achieve a level of 7% remaining and 93% removal. Can you mill any brewing rice to this level? Absolutely not! And the most favorable and expensive specialty Daiginjo rice known as Yamadanishiki “turns to dust!” That’s an amazing fact for sake sleuths. Which rice can stand up to this heat and friction? Kura No Hana, which is very hard on the outside and absorbent on the inside. And milled to 7%, the brewers had to create special equipment to keep the Kura No Hana from disappearing!
Actually, this sake used to be called Super 8! This begs the question why? Why mill something to this extent? Why remove almost all of the grain to get to what? The soul? Are we tasting the soul of the rice? The brewers – like most sake brewers – believe in the removal of impurities. Period. Impurities can and will change a sake. Niizawa Jozoten believes that you can reach a level impurity removal, where impurities such as fats, minerals, amino acids, and proteins do not exist, and all that you are brewing with is pure “purity.”
This sake is truly a work of art. It represents an amazing accomplishment in the sake making world. One could call it a pinnacle effort. The citrus nose, and the young pear tones, on a cutting fluid that drinks crisp and tight, will make you wonder, "Is this what the soul of Kura no Hana rice tastes like?"