From the bottle at KYOU, Sapporo, Japan. Pours transparent white. Aroma is delicate, a little of anise and almond. Body is average. Taste is limited sweet, a bit of bitterness and sourness. Finish is fairly long.

(Bouteille provenant du Holiday Wine Cellar): Très iodé, noix de coco, enrobage boisé, épicé, anisé et une texture huileuse qui se dissout, fond sur la langue.

Bottle at home. Pours a translucent very pale gold and still. Aroma is sweet rice, light cooked banana, and cedar notes. Flavor is sweet rice, bananas, with peppery alcohol, cedar notes and a dry finish. Full body.

Bottle on Sunday night to brace myself for week. Pours slightly tinged clear. Nice nose of cedar and pear. Tastes of pears, light melon, vanilla, almonds, and cedar. Cedar doesn’t dominate but adds nice spicy quality to mix. Alcohol is very hidden could chug this if need be. Lovely.

Bottle: Pours clear with some decent legs. The nose is not that strongly cedared; I was expecting toasted wood and cedar notes all over the place like the Hitachino Next Classic IPA but this one was a little elusive. A mild neutral koji and rice note with some minerally melon and fruit notes dominate the aroma with mild alcohol. The flavor is nice with a mellow impact, light wood accents (very faint) along with the usual koji and sweetness. Low acidity too and a neutral SMV make this an easy drinker. Not really too woody either. Not bad. I wish I was drinking the same thing austinpowers had, as I’m getting virtually nothing in the cedar department.

Bottle. Sent in picture to be uploaded. Completely clear body with maybe just a touch more yellow than water. Decently strong legs. Light cedar, rice, and tropical fruit acidity in the nose. Some spiced oatmeal too. Taste is spicy with wood and a touch of alcohol burn which slightly upsets the ideal balance. Taste is very dry with only a touch of fruit and some spicy wood with a long lingering finish. As I type, I realize this has a very very long duration. Splinters in the after taste. Very syrupy, but quite dry as well. Slightly mouthcoating. Alcohol is noticeable for only the first four sips.

500 ml Bottle from True Sake! Nose of light cedar and rice; Translucent very clear extremely pale yellow; flavor of pastiness, cedar, nad a very light alcohol warmth! Pretty good!

750mL bottle shared at Fugakyu in Boston on 6/22/07
Waviness can be seen in this otherwise transparent, butter-tinged white sake. Large, longstanding legs left down the glass.
Strong, robust nose is yet quite nutty and tannic (neutral, musty wood notes) with very minimal fruitiness and mostly a meaty/earthy/damp aroma. Not easy to characterize, but it’s not that lighter, heady, perfuminess that you get in some ginjos and the like. Almonds/almondskin would be a good match, or even almond liquor mixed with light spices at best. Strong, endearing aroma really warms up the nasal cavity. Very well-used casks obviously, as this is not your typical fresh, spicy cedar.
Really round and chewy in the mouth, with a strong substance to it, the tannins no doubt seeing to that. Bits of vanilla and almond past mingle together, while pearskins and mild citrus tones round out the complexity. Severely drinkable, for me at least. Probably mostly due to the barrel tannins blocking any sharpness or rice pungency. I like that alot. Definitely warming on the finish, but as Walt says, it’s relatively well-hidden.

Pour is slightly yellow golden water...wow...the nose really opens you up...lots of wood, but not wood like you find in a beer or wine, but wood that you find in a whiskey...very very spicey....my nose almost burns...some faint sweetness following it...some alcohol too...very woody earthy taste...not a lot of spices pass through from the nose to the mouth, but there are definately some earthy pricks of spice in the finish...there is still a nice round sweetness, and the alcohol is relatively well hidden for a sake with 16+% as the ABV...but not hidden like you would call the alcohol hidden in a beer....in this case I think it is more subdued...

Good clear color,aroma of water with maybe a hint of alcohol.The flavor was some what sweet with a woodsy mild taste coming through with little else to offer other then the alcohol coming on with a slight mild burn.I actually found this to be quite pleasant,not exactly a brew you’d wanna sit down and make an all day affair over but a few i think are definately in order.