Welcome to the ‘new sake’. Until recently it had seemed that the industry was in decline but now the market for premium sake has seen sales flourish both within Japan and worldwide. Many misconceptions surround Japan’s national drink, from how it is brewed to the relative merits of ginjo, junmai and nama types and from the ideal serving temperature to its ageing potential. Anthony Rose’s new book aims to bring clarity to the confusion surrounding this fascinating wine. Beginning with sake’s long history, Rose takes us on a journey across the centuries to explain how the industry evolved. Sake has been brewed in Japan for more than 2000 years, though the process only really took off during the Edo period (in Western terms, between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries). The wine’s long history also makes it culturally important and no study of sake would be complete without an exploration of its role in ceremony and religion, and the myths, legends and stories that surround it. Rose begins his technical notes on sake with an explanation of the different grades of sake. Labelling rules and regulations are given due consideration in order to enable readers to understand the labels on their bottles before the discussion moves on to an analysis of sake’s flavours. The production process and the structure of an industry that includes 1200 breweries across 47 prefectures, from the small and artisan to major commercial concerns, are covered in detail. The part played by climate and geography in sake’s flavours is explored along with an investigation into the differences imparted by the water, rice, yeast and koji (fermentation mould) used. Rose devotes an entire section to profiling the most important breweries across the main sake-producing regions and also includes details on the more recently emerged non-Japanese producers. With thorough appendices for those who want to delve further into the statistics this is an essential addition to the library of the serious wine enthusiast or student.