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Week in pictures: 27 July – 1 August 2024
This week in pictures features beer editor Jessica Mason with Super Bock, senior staff writer Louis Thomas at Sager + Wilde, and Douglas Blyde at Kioku Bar.
Super Bock
Jessica Mason attended the summer event for Portuguese beer brand Super Bock, which was held at Casa do Frango in Piccadilly, London. Here, there was a matching of a number of traditional Portuguese dishes with the beer.
You can read more about the brand’s partnership with the restaurant chain here.
Sager + Wilde
Senior staff writer Louis Thomas dined at the soon to close Sager + Wilde restaurant in Bethnal Green on Wednesday.
The sister wine bar in Hackney is due to remain open alongside another site.
The Sparkling Sake Brewery
Douglas Blyde recently attended an introduction to The Sparkling Sake Brewery at Kioku Bar in The OWO, London. During the event, head sake sommelier, Anthony Yukio poured six unpasteurised examples from the Cambridgeshire brewery, paired with sashimi, goat’s milk Manchego, and, paired with strawberry millefeuille, a sake brewed for Wimbledon featuring Essex strawberries. Naoki Toyota, who co-founded the world’s only sparkling sake brewery in 2021 with brand and marketing expert and sake educator, Tracey Delaney, was present to share his insights.
The brewery, a 400 square feet space in Cambridgeshire, akin, says Toyota to “the size of a Tokyo convenience store,” aims to “express the beauty of nature’s impermanence through our products.” Toyota uses mineral-rich Cambridge water to ferment imported Honohikari (Nara) table rice. The event showcased a “hidden sake,” described as “awa before dawn,” with notes of miso and Wine Gums. The subsequent classic “awa” had hints of ripe marrow flesh and melon. Our favourite, the Nigori, encapsulates the lees, being particularly clean and balanced, evocative of the chalk of Cambridge water. Also noteworthy was the Rhubarb, featuring West Yorkshire spring rhubarb, being pretty, tense, and gastronomic.
Finally, Kioku Bar’s bartender, Amin Azil, crafted a cocktail starring the produce of The Sparkling Sake Brewery layered with his house-made Solera blend “aperitivo” of leftover sake infused with green tea, bitter orange, and sakura petals.
The Sparkling Sake Brewery produces only 3,000 half bottles given modest Toyota wasn’t sure how his work would be received. Their wares, which frequently sell out, can be found at Kioku, Sune, and Yashin Ocean House in London, afloat on Cunard’s Aji Wa restaurant on Cunard’s Queen Anne, and via thesparklingsakebrewery.com.
Kioku Bar’s next “episode” returns to Japan-made sake, celebrating Tamagawa (Kinoshita Brewing Company) from Kyoto, 20th August (£75).
Villa Maria
As the Official Wine Supplier for the New Zealand team, the Villa Maria bar at NZ House at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics has electrified fans enjoying its delicious wines.
Over the past week the producer had thousands of visitors cheering on Team New Zealand…and it’s only just begun.
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