Sake

Zenkuro Sake is handcrafted with passion in Queenstown and is New Zealand’s first and only sake brewery. With its cool, clean, crisp climate and abundance of soft glacial fed water, Queenstown is the perfect setting for premium grade sake production.

‘Zen’ means all, whilst ‘kuro’ means black, a simple but powerful combination born in New Zealand.

Head brewer David Joll is a certified ‘Advanced Sake Professional’ who adheres to time-honoured traditional Japanese brewing practices. His junmai style sake is as pure as sake can be. Gluten free and low in acidity, it is made without preservatives, clarifiers or unwanted additives of any kind.

Sake, by nature, is considerably less expressive than wine when it comes to tasting. Rather than expecting the same intensity as you would with wine, think of it as you meeting sake half way - i.e. “herbaceous” or “high acidity” in sake will not be as pronounced as Sauvignon Blanc.

Because of this quality, sometimes it takes a while for the sake to open up. Allowing it a few minutes once poured into glass will often make for a much more enjoyable tasting experience.

While Zenkuro products are best enjoyed chilled, there are many sake out there, usually on the fuller body side, that benefit from experimenting with heating. Aromatic sake, on the other hand, tends to lose its extravagance when heated. There’s no right or wrong temperature; sake is a versatile drink that can be flexibly modified to the season or the food with which it is being served.