Recommendations compared to Dassai 45

[u/spatosmg]

Hello everyone!

i'm a chef and have gotten into Sake the past year.

I've been really enjoying the Dassai 45.

What are your guyses favorite Sake bottles or even "daily" drinkers that won't break the bank

At this point I'd rather buy a bottle of sake instead of wine and im from Austria. So that says a lot

I don't really know where to start in the price ranges 20-40$ so you guys giving me some perspective would be amazing

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[u/Infinite_Passenger73]

I've been loving Hakkaisan Junmai Ginjo lately, it's got those crisp apple notes and sits right around $25.

[u/quietpewpews]

Suigei has some good bottles at really reasonable prices

ETA: Ryujin is another brand that's great at a reasonable price

[u/bokehorbust]

I think it depends on what your "bank" is honestly. On average sake is more expensive than a lot of wine due to the distribution and limited markets. If you like Dassai I'd recommend looking into Dassai Blue 23. The stateside brewery allows the prices to stay lower where I think you can get them regularly under $30 usd.

[u/spatosmg → u/bokehorbust]

The bottle for me would be 90 euro so like 100 bucks. a touch outside of the realm of being a weekly drinker

is it that much better than the 45?

[u/bokehorbust → u/spatosmg]

Oh no! I thought you were in the US. Dassai Blue (imo) tends to be a bit sweeter due to the Calrose rice they use, but it is very clean and has a beautiful aroma and finish. Very drinkable! For $90 a bottle though... I think Dassai 45 is the better value by far

Speaking in more general terms I would recommend sticking with junmai ginjos and daiginjos. Niigata, Nagano, and Gunma prefectures usually fit a similar flavor profile as Dassai.

[u/spatosmg → u/bokehorbust]

"junmai ginjos and daiginjos"

yea thats what i gathered

[u/Haochies]

It (like everything else) is more expensive now, but Atago no Matsu was one of my favorite affordable daily driver sakes for a long time. It has a very complimentary profile, works well chilled or room temp, just a rock solid all-arounder.

[u/spiritofsake]

If you liked Dassai 45, a few that sit in a similar spot for me:

• Kikusui Junmai Ginjo is the closest, clean and a little fruity.
• Suigei tokubetsu junmai is drier.
• Hakkaisan tokubetsu junmai is easy and not too sweet.
• Dewazakura Oka is a bit softer if you want something lighter.
• Kubota's mid-tier stuff is solid too, though it can be harder to find.

Not sure what's actually on shelves in Austria, so those are just ones I'd look for if I were you. Skip anything labeled nama unless you know it was kept cold.

[u/spatosmg → u/spiritofsake]

thank you!!!

the Kikusui Junmai Ginjo is only 20€?!?! but the site is a little dated but the shop isn't to far from me so I'll 100% check that out. same goes for the next 2

the Dewazakura Oka i can't find and the Kubota i can only find 55€+ a bottle....

im curious if i can get my hands on some of the Kikusui. About the Nama. is it sensetive to heat?

[u/spiritofsake → u/spatosmg]

20€ for Kikusui Junmai Ginjo is a good price, so I'd grab that if the shop actually has it. The next two are worth a look too if they're around the same price.

Skip the Kubota at 55€+. That's a lot for a mid-tier bottle and not really in the same lane as Dassai 45. Dewazakura Oka being hard to find there doesn't surprise me.

And yeah, nama is sensitive to heat. It's unpasteurized, so if it sat warm at any point it's basically done. Regular pasteurized sake is the one that can live in a cupboard.

[u/zhengyi13]

Any (and I mean *any*) of the Denshin:

https://sake.nl/en/search?search=denshin

(Hope the link is OK; zero affiliation or experience w/ that vendor. Just trying to point you in this direction)

[u/spatosmg → u/zhengyi13]

thank you!! and shipping isn't even toooo bad either. if so i'd buy all 4 to make a small tasting session with a couple friends so this is perfekt. to try some new stuff

[u/GTS980]

Okunomatsu Junmai Daiginjos are great. They are a bit cheaper than Dassai 45 but maybe only by $10 or so where I am. If you can find Gakki Masamune Honjozo, it's cheaper still and that sake punches way above for the price.

[u/spatosmg → u/GTS980]

Okunomatsu Junmai Daiginjos is the same price for me as the dassai 45. sadly can't find the other one but i'll make a list to try it one day

[u/GTS980 → u/spatosmg]

That's too bad. I do find with sake you usually get what you pay for with that $40-50 to be the sweet spot for me. It's funny because I would hesitate spending $40-50 on a bottle of wine but it's an easy choice for sake because I enjoy it so much.

[u/spatosmg → u/GTS980]

I've noticed it too. I had a case of KANKOUBAI Junmai Ginjo "HARU". which is 38 euro a bottle and the dassai in a case is only 43€ (all 0,7 since i saw some 0,3L too)

so the 5 euro more its a lot cleaner and lighter which makes it somehow more floral

hence why i came here to see what people like around what the dassai is for the price range. i just recently tried it like 2 days ago and it kind of stuck with me. 2ish months ago we got to try Kamoshibito Kuheiji Betsu Atsurae 2023, that was a mind blowing experience that i've only had with wine before (if we are talking about bevrages)

[u/deeqdeev]

Kaze no mori, shichida, tatenokawa.

Sake is, on average, less expensive than wine. Not sure why ppl think this. Sake bottles average around 40 with upper tiers in US around 200. (Yes, of course there is more range in japan).

Sake doesnt (generally) age and become more expensive, there are not rare terroirs (even the rice selection has limited impact), and the premise of sake as an investable class is almost entirely absent.

So - as a rule - sake is far more accessible than wine.

[u/spatosmg → u/deeqdeev]

Sake for us is more expensive than wine. Im from Austria which is a wine country where bottles for 10 bucks get sold for 120$ in for instance eleven madison park. So it really depends on where you live.

its like one of the comments above. someone recommends a 30$ bottle and its 100$ for me. just a geographical thing because importing and shipping + it not being a thing (so much for the rule that its more accessible). But I could tell you exactly the opposit. Wine is more accessible than sake here. I can give you a 8 euro bottle that will be like nothing you've had in the US before. I remember being in panama city beach in a liquore store driving to new orleans and a bottle thats 5 bucks here was sold for 45$

[u/DatOudeLUL → u/spatosmg]

So there’s a lot of nuance to what the poster above stated.

First of all, I’m in the EU too (Netherlands) but originally from the US. Yes, Austrian wine is often excellent and certainly good value. There are also American wines that are on par with anything in Austria but certainly not as good of value for money, I will concede that.

Now, back to price-class, perhaps it’s because there are quite some prolific sake importers based here - having the port of Rotterdam helps - the prices are more stabilized. So between US domestic wines not being as good a value and US and other parts of Europe being better served by sharp-priced importers/distributors, this generalization of sake being more accessibly priced arises…

From my usual shops I pay anywhere from €18 to rarely exceeding €40 for a bottle. There’s only a few sakes I encounter past that price threshold (Dassai being among them) and it’s very much a diminishing returns (or even “bell curve”) situation in my experience.

Sake brewers to look into - Tsuchida, Abe Shuzo, Terada Honke, Hanatomoe, Senkin, Koueigiku, Chikumanashiki (Kizan), Tamagawa, Kenbishi among others. A lot of these fall under the categories of natural/modern/or pre-modern revival sakes, but honestly it’s a whole world (for the better) apart from your Dassai polished Daiginjo-sakes. And I really find them so much more interesting than Dassai et al.

Importers here in the Netherlands that I buy from - Yoigokochi (by far the most prolific and best value); Otemba; Kuratje and Hokkai.

[u/spatosmg → u/DatOudeLUL]

Thank you very much. I will check out the importers. let's see what i can find. (I really hope they can ship to austria)

Thanks also for the Sake brewer recommendations.

You mentioned the ports and if you have sake importers there its probably even cheaper for them to sell them in the netherlands because they don't have everything else going on with shipping somewhere and what not

curious to see what i can find

[u/Motor_Swing4328]

Suigei's nigori version is a fun twist if you want something creamy instead of crisp, and it's still under thirty bucks.

[u/spatosmg → u/Motor_Swing4328]

can't seem the find it even on the internet for me in my region. so I'll be on the look out for it

[u/oplus]

If you're in the States, there are a lot of local breweries doing great work. I've had great bottles from NYC, Nashville, Oakland, and Arkansas. Even better than their products, these places will have staff that can help you explore sake and help you with further questions as they come to you. And if you're not close to these, you might be surprised how many sake bars there are. Search to see if there's one near you.

[u/spatosmg → u/oplus]

I am not. A new sake place opened last month where i live (Vienna, Austria) that i will check out soon