Please note, this product is not available for shipping. It is available for free pick-up or delivery in Portland, OR.

Nama season is here! Every spring, sake breweries release fresh-brewed bottles of unpasteurized sake in super-limited amounts. We are super lucky to get access to these, and have gotten as much as we can for you! Spring Nama often disappears quickly, so grab them while you can.

About Koshinohomare Junmai Spring Nama

Bright and dry! Koshinohomare aims for a succinct profile that utilizes the fruitiness inherent in unpasteurized sake, but does so in a dazzlingly sparing way. Citrus and mango sit forefront on the palate. A note of salinity, with restraint, presents itself shortly after the fruit climaxes, but rather than leading into crystal-caverns of minerality, Koshinohomare takes a delightful softer turn. There is a prominent cooked rice profile, that is borne by the breweries softly textured water. Smooth and inviting. The fruit component creates the acidity and brightness to keep the rice part in balance and from being too soft. Sugar cane-like grassy qualities add definition on top of the rounder rice flavors. This is a real standout in the new batch of namas that we get for 2024. Rich and light at the same time? Sake, I love your paradoxes.

Shiboritate means "freshly pressed".  

More on Unpasteurized Sake

Unpasteurized sake is a special thing. It's often lively, bold and punchy, texturous, and packing heaps of heady aromatics. The vast majority of sake gets pasteurized twice to keep it stable and unspoiled so that it can rest easy on store shelves, or in our cupboards at home awaiting drinking. This is the industry norm. An amount far less than that sees one single pasteurization. A lot of the smaller breweries that Fulamingo carries follow the single, in-bottle pasteurization protocol. An even far lesser amount sees no pasteurization at all. These rare birds of sake are called NAMA, or NAMAZAKE. Nama basically means "raw" or unpasteurized.

If Nama is so special, then why don't more breweries make sake this way? For one, leaving sake unpasteurized risks spoilage. Namas need to be kept cool in order to guarantee that unintended microbiological processes don't set in. (Refrigeration is the best way to keep Namas safe from this. A cool cellar is second best, and room temperature or hotter for a prolonged time is asking for bad funk.) The second reason Nama isn't more widely produced and available is that the bold aromatics and lively textures can be downright overpowering for lots of sake fans. This is especially true when we consider the elegant, understated nature of delicately balanced sake. In Japan, for many, Nama is considered a novelty, albeit a novelty to be celebrated and enjoyed, but novel nonetheless. It's kind of like Beaujolais Nouveau for wine fans. Fresh wine is fun, but every winemaker who wants to show you what they can really do will have you wait until the wine ages an appropriate amount before it gets bottled. That being said, sake is absolutely not wine, and the Nouveau analogy although apt doesn't quite account for the broad deliciousness that Nama sake can provide for us, even year-round.