Secrets of a Sake Label

Wine can be intimidating to many people, but sake is even more intimidating. Most of the time, a sake bottle is not consumer friendly and too many wine stores lack any signage to describe the sake.  If you look at the label on a sake bottle, you will find numerous kanji, the Chinese characters used in Japanese writing. I can't read those kanji, and probably most other American consumers cannot do so either. It often can be an obstacle preventing people from buying sake. But, I have a way to decipher the kanji, a cheat sheet that will allow you to understand much of what is listed on the label.

I am going to share some of the most common kanji you will find on sake labels, providing you a way to understand the strange characters. Just think of the kanji as a small picture and then all you have to do is to match that picture to the list I have provided below. I have not provided all of the potential kanji you might find, just some of the most important ones. This will allow you to better understand any sake bottle you find, making it less intimidating.

You can print out this cheat sheet and carry with you to the wine store, and then compare it to sake labels you find there. If you find a kanji not listed below, just ignore it as it is probably not something important to you. You can find the meaning of all of these sake terms on my blog.

Sake  酒

Junmai:　純米
Honjozo:　本醸造
Tokubetsu:　特別
Ginjo:　吟醸
Daiginjo:　大吟醸
Nigori-zake: 濁り酒   
Koshu:　古酒
Genshu:　原酒
Nama:　生
Yamahai:　山廃
Kimoto:　生もと
Nihonshudo:  日本酒度
Seimaibuai:  精米歩合
Percentage of alcohol: アルコール度数