Page 52 - IWSC Tasting Guide 2017
P. 52

Spirit focus
IWSC
celebrates rise
in Asian spirits
From baijiu to shochu, the subtle de-
lights of Asian spirits are grabbing the
attention of western drinkers, writes
ARoger Morris
sian spirits – par cularly baijiu
and Japanese shochu – are becoming more and more popular in the west, and have increased markedly in this year’s
Interna onal Wine & Spirit Compe  on (IWSC). The results of the IWSC Spirits Awards are announced tonight at Vintners’ Hall in London.
Out of 47 baijiu entries (compared to 10 in 2016) there were eight gold medal winners. Six of them are from Taiwan, and two from China. There was such a wealth of baijiu that IWSC o cials decided to introduce a dedicated trophy.
“So  lavender and pine needles...”
The Baijiu Trophy was won by the  ve-year-old Yushan Taiwan Kaoliang Liquor. The judges noted its “so  lavender and pine needles on the nose” and “deligh ul mellowness \[with\] a touch of baked bamboo and Chinese pickle.”
Baijiu has “exploded” onto the world stage in the past few years, IWSC lead judge Stephen Beal said.
Beal remembers tas ng baijiu 40 years ago when he was student in Taiwan. Back then, it didn’t make a big impression. “Now it’s all over the place, a sudden explosion in the past two years.”
However, Baijiu (pronounced “BYE-joe”), is just one Asian spirit rapidly gaining acceptance among Western drinkers.
The other is shochu (“SHOW-choo”) from Japan, and the two of them are becoming the new best friends for many bartenders, who use them as cocktail ingredients for customers who are constantly looking for something new.
What took the west so long?
In retrospect, it’s easy to ask, “What took so long for America and Europe to take no ce?” A er all,
baijiu is one of the most-consumed alcoholic spirit in the world, and shochu is more popular in Japan than sake.
“Baijiu in many ways is similar to mezcal, rhum agricole or even ar san gin,” Beal says. “It is both an ar sanal and a cultural drink,” tradi onally
a second business for many Chinese farmers. Like mezcal, it can be rough around the edges, rus c even, with pungent aroma cs that o en challenge the Western nose. Plus farmers make it out of whatever grows locally and use di erent equipment, so there is no one tradi onal way to make baijiu, nor one typical taste.
The same with shochu. “In early tas ngs, I was not impressed,” says San Francisco bartender Jacques Bezuidenhout, “but then I tried to understand it be er. It has very strong  avors and fragrances, yet the good ones can be complex yet delicate.”
This year’s IWSC Shochu Trophy was won by Shasharakuraku Aka from the Nishi Sake Brewing Co. The judges remarked on its “pronounced aromas of rose, violet, lychee and mango” and “layered and delicate  nish.”
Layers of  avours lurking
Generally speaking, baijiu is the more potent of the two spirits, typically weighing in at 50-60% alcohol by volume (ABV), jus fying the comparison that  rst- me drinkers o en make in comparing it to America’s homemade moonshine.
But just as with extra-hot Asian and La n American cuisine, baijiu has layers of  avours lurking among the heat. For hundreds, even thousands of years, Chinese farmers have allowed sorghum and other grains and vegetables to ferment in cool places, o en buried ceramic jars,
for months, using starter cultures which some compare to terroir in winemaking. A er dis lla on, young baijiu is typically aged for months or years, and o en it is then blended.
On the other hand, shochu begins life much like sake, although it is dis lled rather than brewed. Rice, barley or other grains are o en polished as they are in sake to produce a more re ned taste, then water is added to produce a microbe called koji – o en compared to the mal ng process in the produc on of Scotch – which has much to do with the spirit’s  nal  avour pro le.
Koji also produces acidity that ensures the drink’s preserva on, similar to what happens with the microbes that produce cheeses and yogurt. Less alcoholic than baijiu, shochu is usually 25-30% ABV.
As well as an increase in baijiu and shochu entries, the IWSC has seen an more Korean soju appearing in the compe  on – as well it might,
as this cousin to shochu has been the world’s top-selling spirit for a decade, with 65m cases sold annually (the average South Koreans drinks 32.39 litres a year).
There’s a Korean wave going
round the world
“Soju keeps changing and developing because of its versa lity,” said Lucia Cho, founder of the premium Hwayo Soju, which is sold at London’s upmarket Korean restaurant Jinjuu. “Anything Korean just  ies o  the shelves now. There’s a (Korean) wave going around the world. Restaurants are star ng
to adopt Korean  avours so people actually know what is Korean. Everyone now wants to experience this culture.” l
Addi onal repor ng by Adam Lechmere and Devon Miner
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