I've been trying to make myself a sake connoisseur. I love its mystique. I love its ritual at the sushi bar. I love almost everything about it. But the one thing I don't especially love is its taste.

Now don't get me wrong--I like that taste well enough, and keep drinking sake with Japanese food to further immerse myself in the aesthetic. But never does it happen that I have an epiphanous, stop-everything moment over a cup of sake. Until recently.

I was having sushi at a fabulously rustic, down-to-earth, un-fancy, high-reality sushi bar in Honolulu with killer ahi sashimi when I ordered a bottle of Taru Sake.

I fell in love immediately, and consider this the most delicious sake I've ever tasted. I usually find sake too fruity, or not dry enough, or not crisp enough. These qualities detract from the sake's ability to partner food. This one, I'm delighted to report, is ultra-dry, ultra-crisp, and lighter on the palate than most sakes. It's only 13.8 percent alcohol, compared to the usual 16 percent.

What's more, the flavors are great. The company in Kobe, Japan, that has been making this stuff since 1659 ages it in Yoshino cedar casks, which produces a cedary, cigar-box flavor, tinged with a little earthiness, leafiness, and a haunting green apple suggestion. It is a junmai sake, which means it is pure rice, and naturally brewed (this junmai, in fact, is brewed from the very rare and prized Yamada Nishiki rice.) Japanese people think of this sake as a nostalgic, old-fashioned one, since all sake used to be stored in wooden barrels and tasted something like this. Very complex, and ideal for food! It costs $5 for a 300 ml bottle, and $11 for a 720 ml bottle.

Taru Availability:

Taru Sake is produced by Kikumasamune in Kobe, Japan. It is distributed in the U.S. by Mutual Trading Co. in Los Angeles. They are wholesalers, and do not have a license to sell to the public. Ask at your local wine store if Taru Sake is available.

-David Rosengarten