A Queenstown-produced sake inspired by the legend of Lake Whakatipu has won silver in a European competition.
Zenkuro brewery picked up the silver medal at the inaugural Luxembourg Sake Challenge last month for its Wakatipu Sleeping Giant
label, which also won a silver at the 2019 London Sake Challenge.
It’s a style of sake in which a hard press is done with Otago riverbed rocks following a drip press.
It gives it quite a full-bodied style, head brewer/director Dave Joll says, ‘‘and because it’s evolved a little bit through the pressing process, the alcohol content is a bit higher’’ — lifting rocks is also a good workout, he quips.
In meeting a silver standard, Joll says, ‘‘we were along side a handful of Japan’s most famous breweries, and what’s quite cool is to be ahead of some of them who got bronzes’’.
They didn’t enter to try to sell out in the tiny Luxembourg market, ‘‘but because we like to get feedback from different audiences … around the world’’.
