We enlisted a panel of accredited experts and sake enthusiasts to put 12 varieties and limited releases to the test. They were looking for those that offered well-balanced acidity, complex flavour profiles and a moreish mouthfeel. Akashi-Tai Tokubestu Junmai is quite pleasant chilled. It has an elegant but subtle aroma with notes of apple, elderflower and rice. The sake is quite acidic and dry with a simple taste, creamy texture and short but pleasant finish. The most interesting part of the sake’s name is “kijoshu”, which refers to a special brewing technique when instead of water a brewer adds sake to the fermenting mash at the final stage. It gives the resulted sake a luxurious feel, deep flavour and distinctive viscosity. Normally, kijoshu sake is very sweet, but not in the case of Kanpai Tsuki, which is rather dry. The texture becomes creamier and almost velvety with a very luxurious feel. The acidity softens and some sweetness appears. Jidai Yamahai Junmai Ginjo has a long and lavish finish and holds acidity at a higher temperature pretty well.

I tried it chilled first and the low temperature does not do justice to Kanpai Tsuki. The fun starts at room temperature as the sake opens up. So you can smell sweet apple and pear with honey notes and some herbs and a bit of chestnut. It’s a full-bodied sake, slightly fizzy with a creamy texture notable acidity and spiciness from the higher alcohol content. It has a bitter but pleasant finish. Honjozo Akashi-Tai’s sake is made to be slightly lighter in style than their other types of sake, using high quality rice and a small amount of brewers alcohol to create a crisp, dry and easy to drink sake. Tamagawa Tokubetsu Junmai is a savoury full-bodied sake with a deep taste and silky texture. For me, it tasted sweeter chilled or at room temperature than hot. The sweetness seems to dissolve as you warm the sake up. As many junmai sake, Tamagawa is not particularly aromatic sporting some rice notes and a bit of earthiness.

It’s brewed at the famous Hayashi Honten, one of a few Japanese breweries run by a woman, in Gifu prefecture. Jidai as well as the previous Tedorigawa Junmai are made using a more traditional yamahai method, which results in a richer and deeper taste and higher acidity. However, Judai is still ginjo sake with a fruity aroma full of apricot, pear, baked apple and a bit of herbal notes. Enjoyable either warm or chilled to complement the season, traditional Japanese sake can be savoured across a wide range of temperatures.

The different temperatures provide a changing array of flavours for the palate to appreciate. Warm sake is rather unusual in the world of alcoholic beverages, but it has a long history. The Tedorigawa brewery makes a wide range of excellent sake from classy Ika na Onna to sweet and clean Kinka and mellow Yamahai Junmai Daiginjo. You can enjoy all of them at various temperatures. But Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai was probably specifically made to drink warm. As a rule, the more polished the rice, the more delicate the sake, with floral and fruit notes dominating. This tends to be the more refined, high-end stuff, whereas less polishing results in a deeper – some say rougher – style of sake, with bold umami flavours and a certain oiliness on the palette. I have featured Akashi-Tai sake before as I quite like it. However, it’s the first time I tried Akashi-Tai Tokubetsu Junmai. I asked Miho san, who represents the brewery here, what her favourite temperature for drinking this sake. “Make it really hot!” she replied. So I started with 50C and wasn’t disappointed. Again, I tried the sake at various temperatures and room to warm were the best in my opinion. Jidai has a deep and rich taste and high acidity, especially when you drink it chilled or at room temperature. However, the higher you heat it up, the more mellow it becomes.You can drink Tedorigawa Yamahai Junmai chilled but it doesn’t give it justice. Made by using a yamahai method, the sake acidity at 1.6 and SMV +2.0. It’s not that aromatic which is normal for junmai sake with gentle green tomatoes, rice, lemon and timber notes. Mr Yonezawa explains the brewery’s philosophy this way: “My mission is to make sake that can reveal the character of Hyogo’s water, rice and yeasts, among the finest in Japan, and really let them shine.” Akashi-Tai Honjozo Sake, is a medium-bodied sake with hints of citrus and straw, this is the drink the brew masters reach for at the end of a working day

Polishing is perhaps the key step in defining what kind of sake gets made. It involves stripping away each rice grain's outer husk to reduce down the amount of protein and fat available for fermentation and thus shorten the brewing process. Futsu-shu, which is barely polished, is best thought of as table sake. It accounts for the bulk of sake sold in Japan, and though you'll find some paint stripper, there are many excellent everyday drinkers if you look hard enough. As a category, sake may still have an air of mystery about it – but with Akashi-Tai’s focus on quality, flavour and true craftsmanship, the brewery is proving that it’s certainly one worth investigating.Surely, Hakusturu Excellent Junmai has it in the name. The sake is really excellent, affordable and versatile. You can enjoy it at any temperature. Chilled, it has a light aroma of grapefruit, toasted rice and green apple. When you drink Hakusturu Excellent Junmai straight out of the fridge, the sake is off-dry with pleasant acidity and light vanilla and Bromley apple notes. The sake is medium-bodied, with a silky texture and a long nice finish. Usu Nigori means a cloudy sake with very fine rice particles remaining after pressing. They give the sake a nice mouthful texture. Kanpai Tsuki is also genshu sake, undiluted with an ABV of 17%. Overall, all these characteristics make Kanpai Tsuki a perfect sake to drink warm. Akashi-Tai Junmai Ginjo Sparkling Sake is made at the Akashi Sake Brewery. It is made in the same way as Champagne and other traditional method sparkling wines starting with a Ginjo Sake then undergoes a secondary fermentation in the bottle. The brewery was founded by the Yonezawa family in 1886 in the town of Akashi, one of the major fishing town in the west of Japan. It is an excellent location for a sake brewery with the surrounding fertile soils which are perfect for growing rice and plenty of clean spring water supplies which need for sake production. Akashi Tai is a small artisanal brewery, known as a ‘kura’, who would have previously mainly supplied the local population. However, since the new president Kimio Yonezawa, took over there have been some major developments. The brewery has expanded and modernized its sake-brewing activities, and now produces and sells a wide variety of hand-crafted sakes.