Dom Pérignon’s former chef de cave, Richard Geoffroy, has released an ultra-premium blend of aged sakes called Reserves that he has dubbed “the P2 of sakes”. Disrupting the sake category with a new concept, IWA 5 Reserves, which is made at Geoffroy’s brewery in Tateyama in Japan’s Toyama Prefecture, will carry an RRP of around £200 per 1.8l bottle when it goes on sale in the UK later this year. Displaying more umami and tertiary notes than a young sake, the high-end blend recently launched in Japan and parts of Asia, and has been so well received that Geoffroy is keen to increase production of it. While IWA 5 takes the vintage Champagne approach of capturing the characteristics of a single year, Reserves is more akin to a multi-vintage blend. Speaking to db, Geoffroy said he was keen to shine a light on the ageing potential of sake through the Reserves release. “IWA 5 is a blend of young sakes, and with Reserves, I’m turning the concept on its head by creating a blend of mature sakes. The average age of the sakes in the blend is four years, as I don’t want them to be overly matured. I want to keep it highly drinkable and approachable, but I like the mellow, earthy, mushroom character you get from bottle-aged sakes,” he said. Geoffroy hopes the release will challenge the misconception that sake can’t age. “Reserves is the sake equivalent of Dom Pérignon P2, and with this concept I want
This Article was originally published on The Drink Business - Fine Wine
