Brand Spankin New Bottles (February 2025)

This month’s bottles from the Fifth Taste portfolio: Chochin 5055 Muroka Nama Genshu Junmai Ginjo + Asahi Mai Junmai Daiginjo Genshu

It’s always heartwarming to reminisce on a first meeting you remember of a long time friend. For Kayoko and me, I vividly remember meeting her at McHart’s Pizza in Cupertino in 1996. We were just a couple of teenagers, going to different high schools, being introduced over pizza. Who knew that 30 years later, we’d be running a small business together, closer than ever.

It was roughly 10 years ago that Jesse Pugach walked through the doors of Umami Mart and introduced himself. Back then, he worked for a very large distribution company doing the impossible – sake sales... in a suit. Looking back, Jesse has always been professional, passionate about sake, and funny as hell! Over the years, he’s helped us bring in sakes of all types: crowd pleasers, niche, hard-to-find, and hyper seasonal. As a WSET (Wine, Spirit Education Trust) instructor, he is also one of the best sake educators in the country. I had the honor of being in his WSET 3 class last April. Not only was it fun, but I learned a ton! I recommend taking any of his classes if you want to learn about sake.
Jesse Pugach of Fifth Taste at Sake Day 2024 in San Francisco

But wait, there’s more!!! Jesse launched Fifth Taste, his sake import and distribution company in 2019. We were so excited he was “going rogue.” The start of Fifth Taste felt like it was the opus of Jesse’s sake career. It meant we could get great bottles, on schedule with good information to boot. As a retailer, I’d say that is the trifecta you’d hope for (but rarely get) from a distributor or importer. Jesse never fails to deliver the most interesting bottles, in great condition, with lots of education behind them.

This month, we are featuring two new bottles in Jesse’s portfolio. Level 1 and 2 members will be getting the Chochin 5055, a muroka nama genshu, that will get the year started with a bang of flavors. While the Level 2 Asahi Mai Junmai Daiginjo is a perfect example of an all-the-rage sake – lush and juicy.

Read our interview with Jesse on our blog. And as usual, please find my bottle notes below.

Kanpai.

Yoko (Co-Founder, Umami Mart)

Chochin 5055 Muroka Nama Genshu Junmai Ginjo

Chochin Shuzo (Aichi, Japan)

Seimaibuai: Yamada Nishiki 50% (Kojimai) + Hattan Nishiki 55% (Kakemai), SMV: +11, Acidity: 2.0, Yeast: No. 9

Jesse tasted us through three bottles of Chochin’s bottles that are coming in this year. Out of all three, I chose the 5055 for its balance. Chochin’s sakes are bold and brash, this one is aged for 6 months, which allows the complexity of flavors to mingle and mellow out a bit. Get aromas of peach, mango, and cream. We tasted juiciness of tropical fruits and a bitterness akin to dark chocolate. While this sake is great at room temperature, I also loved it slightly warmed alongside a big bowl of steamed mussels. Jesse only got 20 of cases and we were able to procure 14 of them for Gumi.

“Chochin Shuzo is our newest import,” says Jesse, “It is a very small brewery located in Aichi and we are fortunate that Kuwayama-san agreed to begin exporting it to us. He is a man of tireless devotion. They don’t use machines, the one exception is a single pump, used only once in the process to move the moromi into the Yabuta press. The shubo is ladeled, and rice is washed by hand. To say that Kuwayama-san is obsessive would be an understatement, he makes 250 koku (45K liters) a year, while the size of his facility could easily accommodate 5 times that. When I asked him why not more his reply was, ‘because I’d die’ and that is not an exaggeration. The entire season he survives on a little more than three hours of sleep a day, eating very little because he knows if his stomach is full he’ll fall asleep right away. He makes up the calories with chocolate. Of course the newspaper wrapping is also by hand, done by the mother, wife (who also is in charge of bottling) and daughter.”

Asahi Mai Junmai Daiginjo Genshu

Houou Biden (Tochigi, Japan)

Seimaibuai: Asahi Mai 50%, SMV: N/A, Acidity: N/A, Yeast: House

It was no surprise that my Napa Cab-loving mom was a fan of this sake. It’s silky, juicy and velvety with coconut, mango, and muscat flavors. My top food pairings were an anchovy bean dip, and a zesty, fresh goat cheese. Sip this sake chilled in a wine glass to enjoy its aromas. Hououbiden is headed by female brewer Mayumi Kobayashi. They pride themselves on using in house yeasts. The namesake of this sake comes from Asahi rice, a non-crossbred heirloom variety.

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