Momokawa Pearl Junmai Nigori Genshu Sake

Brewed by SakeOne Corporation
Style: Nigori
Forest Grove, Oregon USA

Milky white, like whey, Aroma of tropical fruit Mike & Ikes, meunster cheese, rubbing alcohol and pineapple. Fruit and funk are strong in the flavor with apples and alcohol in the finish. Best sake, I’ve ever had, and it hits its stride around 60F. $17/ 750

12/06/2007: Momokawa Pearl is milky white and looks thin like skim milk. Hints of cantelope rind come out throug the alcoholic aroma. This medium-light sake has a smooth and silky melon flavor. There is a bit of burn in the nose, but not really that much for 18%+ ABV!

200 ml bottle shared by Tmoney99. Thanks Tom! Rating #54 for this sake.

Whitish pearl colored with white chunks in it. Tart pina colada nose. Very smooth with soft coconut, pineapple, and creamy cantelope ice cream notes. Warming alcohol but nicely hidden from the palate. Fairly sweet but not cloying. Pretty good if you can get past the chunks on the palate that remind me of drinking curdled milk if I ever had drinken curdled milk.

Served at some local Asian place. Appearance is completely rice milk, a bit awkward that way. It has some visible specks and solids as well. So, a bit chunkier than the one other Nigori that I have had. Aroma is lots of alcohol with grassy berries that are a bit plastic. Taste is pretty bare bones with alcohol and a light sweetness at the end. Seemed overly plain. No alcohol burn but plenty of alcohol essence left over. It did grow sweet as I ate my spicy food, so it paired well with that. Leaves a thick residue on the glass.

Ultra hazy with a creamy, watery-milk appearance. Tons of suspended particles. Slightly sweet yet alcoholic aroma, husky with a little banana. Sweet flavor, notes of banana cream and ginger, and a slightly alcoholic finish. Quite a nice flavor - I would be tempted to call this a "dessert sake." Being relatively new to this sake game, I rather enjoyed this.

With an SMV of -12 you just know this is going to be sweet, as a nigori should be. Plus, SakeOne is trying to appeal to an American consumer base, and so far, we tend to like our sake’s either dry and boiling hot (a shame) or cloyingly sweet (also a shame). Still, I really liked what SakeOne did with their Murai series, so I wanted to try their other brews, including this, the Momokawa Pearl Junmai Ginjo Nigori Genshu. A mouth full, to be sure. As a nigori should be, with the lees pressed into the final product, it’s a very cloudy sake with a sort of transparent luster. Shining in its cloudiness. The aroma matches, light and bright, with a nice dose of peach amongst overtones of alcohol and fermented rice. The palate is also unsurprisingly thick, weighed down by the particulates, but also enriched by the creamy texture. It sits and settles on the center of the tongue, like a portly monarch to his undersized throne, radiating sweet flavors: cherry, peach and a big of a cough syrup burn. A lovely medley of flavors, save for the medicinal burn. After that, the alcohol sweeps onto the palate, enjoying its own allotted share of time, but doesn’t burn intensely enough to be incendiary. In its wake is a discernible but pleasant trail of alcohol. Thus, this nigori sake is sweet and straight forward, alternating between some nice, bold fruity flavors and a fierce alcohol. Good introduction to nigori sake, I’d say, but lacks the subtlety that, say, the Murai sake series had.

Bottle from BevMo. Pours a watered down milk color. Looks kind of thick. Grainy nose. Somewhat sweet and fragrant with alcohol. Some yeastiness in flavors. For some reason this stuff reminds me of a Belgian. Spices and yeast seem to dominate. A bit of alcohol too.

This Nigori Sake pours a very cloudy milky white color from a corked 20oml bottle. No head. The aroma is fruit, perfume and coconut. Medium bodied Sake. The flavors are fruity and quite sweet, kind of like coconut milk, it is in no way like that but sort of reminds me of it. Very full mouthfeel, almost chewy, but considering the amount of stuff at the bottom of the bottle very understandable. At 18.5% the alcohol is noticeable, but balanced by the fruit sweetness. Mouthfeel is full. Finish is clean and smooth. Aftertaste is sweet with some alcohol bite.