There was a unique rich sweetness, vanilla and fruity scents and noble alcoholic scents breathing.
The smell and atmosphere of the front and back studios were completely different.
As you talk to the hermit, I will understand why.
Earlier, I wrote that awamori is aged in a bottle, but of course it can also be aged in a jar.
Rather than aging in a jar, it matures faster and is wonderful.
When I asked the hermit about it in detail…
It is made by firing at a high temperature from the power of the soil (earth) that the pot has.
Even after it’s finished, the jar continues to breathe.”
“The difference between aging in a bottle and aging in a jar depends on whether or not you can breathe.”
For maturation in a form that the bottle is perfectly sealed and can not breathe at all from the outside,
It is said that the pot is breathing delicately.
To put it simply, the urn is slightly leaking or slightly evaporating.
It mixed with the air in the workshop and created a unique scent.
I have never felt such a gentle and elegant awamori,
It makes me feel like I’m being wrapped up in it.
The hermit’s name, “Silently 100 Years School…” may be the silent time emanating from this fragrance.
When it comes to old sake, the hermit’s eyes are different and strict and sharp.
“At first, I didn’t think much about it, and thought that it would be fine if I let the awamori rest in the jar.
One day, he met an old sake veteran and asked him to drink his own awamori.
how is it? When I asked, I was told that this was not old sake…”
“When I asked what was wrong with the shock, the way of serving,
And there is not enough delicacy and affection for details…”
So the hermit began to talk about his bitter experience.
Hermit’s master is a person named Janaha.
Awamori Shitsugi is a small amount of old sake that has been aged for about seven years.
And it is to add old sake that has been aged for about 6 years as much as you drank (Shitsugi).
The hermit’s failure was to produce not only a small amount of old sake that had been aged for 7 to 8 years, but about half of it.
It was something I drank with my friends as a free drink.
According to Master Janaha’s teachings, only 10% of the total can be taken out of the aging jar in one year.
After that, the hermit makes it a point to do the shitsugi every year during a certain month.
Main pot (old sake 28 years old – 31 years old to be precise, because the first one is old sake 3 years old)
Take 10% out of it and put it in a bottle of 1 go and enjoy it as a sake for the year.
Pour the same amount (10%) from the child jar (27 years old sake) into the parent jar, which has decreased by 10%.
In the same way, to the child pot, from the grandson pot, to the grandchild pot, from the great grandson pot, and so on, about 27 times in total.
By the way, all brands use the same awamori.
And the new sake is not used, and the old sake that is added at the end is a three-year-old that has just been bought.
Aged sake is not made by letting awamori sit.
This is the “shitsugi” of cultivating old sake.
Awamori that has been breathing for a year toward the main jar grows and moves to the next jar.
I felt that it resembled the structure of an Okinawan family (blood).
Without a love for Awamori, good old sake cannot be produced.
And it spreads to the details that the hermit cherishes
I was able to see the delicate work.