Chopsuey Cafe Yamagata sake dinner

In collaboration with the Yamagata Prefectural Board, Chopsuey Cafe will be hosting a Yamagata sake dinner on Tuesday 20 August 2019 from 7pm to 10pm featuring the sakes of Gasanryu and Benten.

Yamagata sake shot to prominence in the late 1980s when it established itself as a trend setter in the Japanese sake industry. It was one of the first prefectures – if not the first – in Japan whose sake breweries employed sakagura who lived in the area; traditionally in most other prefectures these brewery workers, including the head brewer or the toji, would have been sourced from further afield. They had the foresight too to hire comparatively younger workers to help carry on sake expertise to the new generation. But Yamagata’s biggest revolution was a conscious shift at that time towards making premium grades of sake, and today the prefecture still holds a comparative market advantage when it comes to top-quality sake.

This exclusive six-course sake dinner will feature premium sakes from two sake breweries based in Yamagata Prefecture – Shindo, makers of the Gasanryu (雅山流) brand of sake, and Goto, which makes Benten (辯天). Brewery owners Masanobu Shindo of Gasanryu and Daisuke Goto of Benten will be on hand at this dinner to share about their brewery histories and sakes.

Sakes to be tasted at this Yamagata sake dinner are:

• Gasanryu Honjozo Kouka
• Gasanryu Junmai Daiginjo Fukurodori Gokuzuki
• Benten Junmai Daiginjo Dewa Sansan
• Gasanryu Junmai Fuka
• Benten Junmai Daiginjo Yumenishiki
• Benten Junmai Daiginjo Bizen Omachi

The full food and sake pairing menu is given below.

This Yamagata sake dinner at Chopsuey costs $108 per person. Tickets can be purchased here.