Sake Recently Explained To Me By A Gentleman From Hawaii June, 2009 Here T Cleveland Park Wines

This is just the start : it's already Sunday, July 12th, 2009 here at my home in northern Virginia at 12:23 PM and I have just scanned through these photos that I downloaded. I knew that It was just in the starting stages this blog entry. I knew that a lot of the pieces were missing still.




Funny, I thought I had already downloaded more pictures here that would help the viewer get more of the story here, especially about these excellent sakes. I was mistaken : i have many fewer pictures than I thought and they tell much more of a story of the man that I was taking pictures of ( who lives in Hawaii and sells Japanese sake ) and of the way I like to frame and create " hopefully " new and exciting " images that we would normally not see if it was not for the artist in me searching for new views and ways to see things from different angles and perspectives. These of course can be revealing but unflattering, especially to many women. I don't believe that men are quite as sensitive about this.




Here I have pictures of this man from Hawaii that are fractured and chopped off as if my camera started to take a picture with him more centered in the image than he is in these. This is partially true when I could see the image before snapping. Here I may have simply pointed the image towards him, tilting it up as he spoke and gestured,moved and displayed lots of animation, feeling and his words conveyed quite a bit of knowledge of sake, too.




I must admit gladly here that it was this gentleman and his words and descriptions that have worked to bring the whole topic of sake ( new and old ) into a much greater focus for me than ever before. For that I am eternally grateful to him. I hope that he will return to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits sometime and do an in-store sake-tasting for all our customers in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington D.C. our nation's capitol. Please come anytime, really.




There's a really atmospheric quality to these images here. I like it : very Japanese in some ways : we are all supposed to look both at the images as well as the space around them, through them : our eyes roving constantly, wondering if something will be added or simply content to rest for awhile on what is here and ponder their significance, beauty, place, juxtaposition, timelessness? You choose.




I believe that I will write a separate blog entirely using some of these pictures and adding more and including more detail and information. This will rest as my artsy blog on Japanese sake and all the different styles and tastes and food-pairing possibilities. And that's not to mention the various settings that one might enjoy drinking sake either all on it's own or combined with a meal. Just be sure and bring your tongues and leave your shoes at the door. Thanks ...




I love to take the pictures of the bottles and labels as well as the actual product ( sake in this case ) through the glass looking at the people or the bottles and labels. I like showing the actual product so that the wine or the beer or the sake ( liquor, too ) is visible to us and not hidden away from view in the bottle. The colors can often be quite beautiful and intriguing. On top of that it's always nice to connect the wine or sake with it's setting - a visually quite stimulating to the eye.



Here I have the glass and the labels and product sheets spread out on our tasting table and unfortunately or fortunately the images are a bit blurred and hard to read. In this case it works as I want this blog to be more about the art and the feel and the emotion of the moment - inspired by this man and the sakes collectively.




Here you can see him examining his product and then later speaking about it. He kept describing fruits and tastes that I did not get when I tasted along with him. I think the fruit references were especially hard for me to grasp : like apples - I got no apples when I tasted.

That's okay , we all taste differently and maybe some day I will taste some of what he described to me. I loved also all the conversation about rice and the polishing of it up to the remaining twenty percent which would later be used to produce the finest, most expensive sake.

I spoke of the purity of the water and how important that was as well to getting such quality sakes. He agreed but said that it was the polishing of the grains of the rice and the quality of the rice itself that were key to the fabulous quality now available world-wide of these sakes.




I love this picture above of man and sake glass liquid, bouquet only imagined and the filter of light and refractions etcetera of light on glass and sake here. I like taking these kinds of photos to see what I get. I am never sure and am often surprised and sometimes really pleased.




Here one of our customers stops to see what all the excitement is about and gets a chance to taste first-hand and weigh-in themselves with their tastes, opinions and observations.

Our customers at Cleveland Park are used to stopping at our tasting table to see and to taste as well as meet all the people that pass through our doors on a regular basis bearing with them so many wonderful gems in a liquid form whether it be beer, liqueur, liqour or wine. Our customers are interested in all four categories.






Here we are together at the end of this marvelous, fun, serendipitous, learning experience for me. I really got quite a lot out of it and am happy for that as sake is a quickly-growing category and lots of people come through our doors here in Cleveland Park with the mission of buying some sake to later enjoy at home with their family, friends and associates.

We / I am glad to be a part of this , a link so to speak that makes it all possible. It;s a wonderful thing when you touch someone's life hopefully in a positive way.

Enjoy these photos, TONY