For Heaven's Sake - Only in Canada

After much playing of telephone tag over the weekend we finally got to talk with Masa Shiroki about his soon to be opened Artisan Sake Maker Studio on Granville Island.

For a long time now, we’ve known Mr. Shiroki as a Vancouver wine agent with a number of diverse and interesting products in his portfolio, Pinnacle Ice Cider being just an example. Most notably, he has specialized in importing premium brands of sake from Japan, and, via the lunches and tasting sessions he has organized with Tojo and other local chefs, he has been instrumental in introducing the product to a new audience here in BC. If we now know not to heat sake and can readily distinguish the rough stuff from the finer versions, we have Masa Shiroki to thank for it.

Now after three years of distilling and experimenting with various types of imported yeasts and rice, Shiroki has his own premium sake label, Osake, which he is producing at a facility on Railspur Alley – the first sake winery in Canada. He’s got the formula to the point where he wants it, now all he has to do is clear a few hurdles with the provencial liquor board and we can all look forward to new facet of regional food and wine matching. Unfortunately, the powers that be don’t want this to come about easily.

To start, Osake has been launched in three variations, all of them fermented from top-quality Japanese sakamai rice, hand-pressed, hand bottled and meant to be served fresh. The premium quality sake that comes from Japan is normally produced once a year in winter. But because Shiroki has designed his sake to pair with the changing seasonal bounty of our westcoast ingredients, he plans to produce this line in small batches throughout the year. The word “ nama