Sake Education Council

Newsletter for the CSP & ASP Community

Volume 2, Newsletter 1 March 2012
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Greetings to all CSPs and ASPs,

On behalf of myself and the other directors of SEC, I hope you are all well.
First off, my apologies for this being the first email in a couple of months. In spite of the many uncertainties and instabilities in just about everything these days, sake continues its run. And that has kept me thankfully and gratefully busy, albeit so much so that a couple things have fallen through the cracks, this newsletter being one of them.

All possible measures will be taken to be more regular from here on out.


Being early March, most sake breweries have spotted the light at the end of this season’s tunnel. All reports thus far are positive, with a very cold winter helping that. Demand and consumption are steady or perhaps down only very slightly, another good sign. And exports hit a new record last year again. Let us hope this trend gains some momentum!


Enjoy the thawing spring, at least those of you in the northern hemisphere, and enjoy the newsletter.


John Gauntner
INDUSTRY NEWS

“The Turnaround” – or not?

Sake is starting to get more attention and show a bit of a glimmer in Japan lately. While again in 2011, consumption dropped a bit, the rate of that drop slowed continually. And it is hard to put much faith in those stats anyway: down one month, up the next. BY (brewing year) stats are down but CY (calendar year) stats are up, or vice versa… sake is down but less so than other beverages in an overall alcohol-declining market, so in effect it is up… the data, its permutations and the potential interpretations are endless.

But the most promising was that last year (2011) sake consumption was 99.2 percent of the previous year. I’ll take that! For those that care, the total was 3,300,000 koku. (Since you all remember a koku is 180l, I will let you do the math!)

But overall, most restaurants and distributors I have spoken to seem to see a small increase in popularity of sake, while shochu on the other hand is retreating a bit. “Sake sales seem to be up maybe ten to twenty percent,” might be the average response I have been hearing of late.

More specifically, while the overall prevailing mood of “self restraint” in Japan led to a drop in consumption of inexpensive sake to restaurants et al, a true feeling of wanting to support the affected kura of Tohoku gave rise to significant increases in sales of sake from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima! And the cold winter this year in Japan (coldest in 25 years, they say) fueled a 1.6% increase in consumption in the most significant month of the year, December.

And, to follow that, while it was expected that the support for Tohoku (at least expressed in sake sales) would drop off, it continued into the new year. Apparently, folks that had never tasted good sake were doing so to help Tohoku, and fell in love with the stuff without intending to do so!

Following that, clever brewers took advantage of that trend and rode the momentum with lots of marketing events and efforts. Much of this hitherto unseen creative stuff, such as new products with lower-than-average alcohol, sake designed to pair well with cheese, sparkling sake and other abominations, er, clever variations. Much of this is deemed necessary by even big brewers since the sales of very inexpensive sake, while up, yields little profit due to the price wars on such products.

However, there is still much to be done, and the comeback is just in its fledgling stages. It could still stall! A cold January to March has helped, but above and beyond that, the industry cannot let this chance slip away. Let us encourage them and support them.  

And we all know how to do that!

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

The following is from my personal newsletter, reproduced here for those that do not subscribe to that.

As we approach the March 11 one-year mark since the catastrophic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident the sake industry continues along its paradoxical path of making better sake than any time in history, while at the same time contracting overall. Here is a quick snapshot of things as they are in this moment.

Currently, there are 1272 breweries making at least some sake. This is down 30 from 1302 last year. However, note that not a single brewery went down due to the occurrences of March 11. Every single brewery damaged or destroyed has some how managed to pick themselves up, and continue make sake this year. Miraculous. While their future may still be perilous, at least they are here, now.  

Production for the 2010 brewing year was 440,000 kiloliters, down 6.3% from the previous year. Readers will surely remember that sake is brewed in a period surrounding the coldest months of the year. Smaller brewers might brew from November to February, mid-sized kura from October to April, and behemoth breweries crank it out maybe September to May or longer. So the “Brewing Year” is defined as July 1 to June 30, so as to capture one complete brewing season, no more and no less, and no matter what the scale of enterprise might be. So the 2010 brewing year ran from July 1, 2010 until June 30, 2011. And since we are now in the middle of the 2011 brewing year (that began on July 1, 2011 and will end on June 30, 20112) for all intents and purposes the data is for “last year.”

Also, against the backdrop of the slight drop in sake consumption, it is worthwhile to point out that alcohol consumption in Japan has dropped in recent years as well.

Of those 1272 active breweries, 310 make only premium sake, a small increase of premium-only brewers. And, a full 31% of all sake made was one of the premium designations. Wow. While I sincerely have nothing against cheap sake, or standard “futsuu-shu,” a movement toward premium is likely a good thing when viewed from the vantage point of long-term survival.


IN THIS ISSUE

INDUSTRY NEWS

INDUSTRY SNAPSHOT

FUTURE COURSES

RECENT GRADUATES

    RECENT GRADUATES

CSP Graduates, Japan 2012

The Certified Sake Professional certification course (AKA Sake Professional Course Level I) took place as scheduled and ended relatively uneventfully this past January. This gave rise to 17 new Certified Sake Professionals. Their names are listed below and are posted on the SEC website as well. Congratulations to all!

Chris  Armes
Ron Batori
Markus Baumgartner
Elliott Faber
Raphael Holser
Derrick Lim
Fixi Linden
Marek Malcharczyk
Puvadol Saengvichien
Patrik Safstrom
Katie Scanlon
Stan Smivinoff
Charlie Grace Wang
Jacqueline Waterhouse
Lindsay Wheelock

ASP Graduates, Japan 2012

Following that, in February, the Advanced Sake Professional certification course (AKA Sake Professional Course Level II) took place as scheduled and ended relatively uneventfully. This gave rise to 18 new Certified Sake Professionals. Their names are listed below and are posted on the SEC website as well. Congratulations to all!

Yoed Anis
Michael Carlson  
Tack Wai Cheong
Nancy Cushman  
Daniel Ford  
Julian Houseman  
Fran Kysela  
Lisa Bell Kysela
Yukiko Kawasaki
John Mang  
Takao Matsukawa
Yosuke Nakano
Drew Peterson  
Jesse Pugach
Karen Tan
Klaus Vogt
Edith Wong
Birdie Yang  
Trevor Zebulon 

   FUTURE COURSES

CSP Sake Professional Course (Level I) in Chicago, July 2012

The next CSP Certification Course is scheduled for Chicago in July. The exact dates and venue are being determined now and should be decided upon soon. A more formal announcement will be sent out at that time. However, if you are interested in sending someone or recommending someone, by all means, please send me an email (sakeguy@gol.com) and reserve a spot or two.

In Closing,

We hope you are well, where ever you are, and enjoying sake in some capacity.
By all means, all CSP and ASP readers are encouraged to submit content for the SEC newsletter. Don’t be shy!

If you are no longer involved with sake, God forbid, or for any other reason you prefer to not receive this email, then please let us know.

Sake Education Council

CONTACT DETAILS

Sake Education Council

johngauntner@sakeeducationcouncil.org

paultanguay@sakeeducationcouncil.org

sallymohr@sakeeducationcouncil.org

jonathandriver@sakeeducationcouncil.org

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