A Queenstown brewery has put New Zealand on the global sake map for the first time.
The country’s first and only dedicated sake brewery has taken home a gold award for its handcrafted Drip Pressed Junmai Ginjo as part of the Tokyo Sake Challenge.
Zenkuro Sake director Richard Ryall says this award comes as the brewery celebrates its 10-year anniversary.
"It's been an amazing journey for us to reach this point - and 10 years has just flown past. But what a way to celebrate, with this fantastic award."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sake is very much the domain of the Japanese, but
one Kiwi brewery has taken on Japan's best and one
gold Queenstown based Zinkuro Sake has claimed the award at
the Tokyo Sake Challenge. It's Drip Priest Sake Zincudo is
New Zealand's first and only dedicated sake brewer. Brewery and
(00:33):
director Richard Rayld joins me. Now, good morning, Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Good morning Francesca, nice to talk to.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You, love you to have you with us. Zinkuro am
I saying that correctly.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Your pronunciation was very good, so far, well done.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There we go. That was for form Japanese for you, congratulations.
You and your co director Dave entered this competition to
marke your tenth anniversary. This must be a pretty good
way to celebrate.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, no, it's it's been an amazing journey for us
to reach this point and yet ten years has just
flown past. But yeah, what a way to celebrate with
this fantastic award from from the home of the home
of sake. So this is a great sort of validation
of where we're what we've been doing, and where we're at.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
What sits your sake apart from others.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, I think you could probably say that we actually
we've gone back to the roots of how sak used
to be made many hundreds of years ago in Japan.
At the moment, saki in Japan's are very much a
big industry. You know, they produce over five hundred million
bottles of saki a year and it's it's a big
(01:46):
industrial process. Well, we've gone back to the sort of
roots of how it used to be made. We have
a very sort of small batch process. Everything is done
by hand. We don't have any machinery in the brewery.
And we actually it could be argued that we actually
have a perfect climate for making psake down here in Queenstown.
(02:09):
You know, Queenstown's a pretty cool climate even during the summer,
and a cool climate is great for making saki. And
we also have some very sort of good water here.
The water here is very soft, soft water is great
for making sakke. So all we needed was to get
(02:32):
some rice and that's been that's been the process. We've
got the climate, we've got the water. We just needed
some rice.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Where did the rice come from?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So we actually import our rice from from Japan. The
rice that's used for making psaki is actually slightly different
to the rice that you generally eat. You've got table
rice for eating, and then you've got sakki rice for
for making sakke. So a big, a big part of
(03:03):
what we do is is getting some great sakkia rice
imported from some sake rice producing areas in Japan.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Hand crafted. Does that make it a labor intensive process?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Oh? Yes, right, it's yeah. We do everything by hand,
including writing the number of the bottle on the label,
putting labels on, putting the caps on. We've got a
great team in Queenstown here, our sake brewer brewers do
a fantastic job. They were working very cold conditions because
(03:42):
even when it's hot in Queenstown, we do like to
keep the brewery cold, so all year they're basically in
a very cold environment and doing everything by hand. So
it's a it's a very inefficient way of doing it.
But we've just sort of taken a very sort of
I guess you could call it a conservative approach to this,
(04:04):
not trying to over invest in in the in the business,
just keeping it small batch, authentic and just growing slowly,
and this this prize will hopefully be a springboard to
two greater things.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Is there good demand for it here?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, it's we're we're sort of really lucky with the
timing of when we started this ten years ago. It
was just at a point a little did we know,
but saki was actually starting to take off around the
world outside Japan, other countries like in the States and
(04:46):
in Europe, they were just starting to get on board
with I guess it's part of the sort of explosion
of Japanese food everywhere around the world. Everyone's loving their
sushi and their sashimi and their tempura these days, and
I guess drinking sake with with Japanese food sort of
(05:07):
became sort of more of an acceptable thing to do.
And then people have you know, some of these chefs
now on these TV programs that we see on all
the time, they're starting to realize that saki actually goes
really well with not only Japanese food, but also with
with Western food. So now you know, saka is being
(05:30):
paired and matched with with all sorts of foods that
probably the Japanese would have never thought that their their
national drink would would go well with Richard.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
If someone has been a bit slow at getting mum
and Mother's Day present, is it easy to pick up
some zincor today?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Oh yes, yeah, yeah, definitely on your way home, maybe
this afternoon. But no, we we we we we do
online sales of course, and and and there was various
sales outlets all over the country. Yeah, so it's it's
a it's a time for sure, so please give it
(06:09):
a try. But people that sort of tend to think
asaki as being a you know, like a vodka or
a tequila, it's not. It's it's a wine and it's
a really delicate flavors and it really does go well
with lots of different things.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Richard Raoul, thank you so much for your time today.
So that award winning sake is called zin Kuro.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks EDB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
Sake is very much the domain of the Japanese, but
one Kiwi brewery has taken on Japan's best and one
gold Queenstown based Zinkuro Sake has claimed the award at
the Tokyo Sake Challenge. It's Drip Priest Sake Zincudo is
New Zealand's first and only dedicated sake brewer. Brewery and
(00:33):
director Richard Rayld joins me. Now, good morning, Richard.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Good morning Francesca, nice to talk to.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You, love you to have you with us. Zinkuro am
I saying that correctly.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Your pronunciation was very good, so far, well done.
Speaker 2 (00:46):
There we go. That was for form Japanese for you, congratulations.
You and your co director Dave entered this competition to
marke your tenth anniversary. This must be a pretty good
way to celebrate.
Speaker 3 (00:57):
Yeah, no, it's it's been an amazing journey for us
to reach this point and yet ten years has just
flown past. But yeah, what a way to celebrate with
this fantastic award from from the home of the home
of sake. So this is a great sort of validation
of where we're what we've been doing, and where we're at.
Speaker 2 (01:20):
What sits your sake apart from others.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Well, I think you could probably say that we actually
we've gone back to the roots of how sak used
to be made many hundreds of years ago in Japan.
At the moment, saki in Japan's are very much a
big industry. You know, they produce over five hundred million
bottles of saki a year and it's it's a big
(01:46):
industrial process. Well, we've gone back to the sort of
roots of how it used to be made. We have
a very sort of small batch process. Everything is done
by hand. We don't have any machinery in the brewery.
And we actually it could be argued that we actually
have a perfect climate for making psake down here in Queenstown.
(02:09):
You know, Queenstown's a pretty cool climate even during the summer,
and a cool climate is great for making saki. And
we also have some very sort of good water here.
The water here is very soft, soft water is great
for making sakke. So all we needed was to get
(02:32):
some rice and that's been that's been the process. We've
got the climate, we've got the water. We just needed
some rice.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Where did the rice come from?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So we actually import our rice from from Japan. The
rice that's used for making psaki is actually slightly different
to the rice that you generally eat. You've got table
rice for eating, and then you've got sakki rice for
for making sakke. So a big, a big part of
(03:03):
what we do is is getting some great sakkia rice
imported from some sake rice producing areas in Japan.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
Hand crafted. Does that make it a labor intensive process?
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Oh? Yes, right, it's yeah. We do everything by hand,
including writing the number of the bottle on the label,
putting labels on, putting the caps on. We've got a
great team in Queenstown here, our sake brewer brewers do
a fantastic job. They were working very cold conditions because
(03:42):
even when it's hot in Queenstown, we do like to
keep the brewery cold, so all year they're basically in
a very cold environment and doing everything by hand. So
it's a it's a very inefficient way of doing it.
But we've just sort of taken a very sort of
I guess you could call it a conservative approach to this,
(04:04):
not trying to over invest in in the in the business,
just keeping it small batch, authentic and just growing slowly,
and this this prize will hopefully be a springboard to
two greater things.
Speaker 2 (04:21):
Is there good demand for it here?
Speaker 3 (04:24):
Yeah, it's we're we're sort of really lucky with the
timing of when we started this ten years ago. It
was just at a point a little did we know,
but saki was actually starting to take off around the
world outside Japan, other countries like in the States and
(04:46):
in Europe, they were just starting to get on board
with I guess it's part of the sort of explosion
of Japanese food everywhere around the world. Everyone's loving their
sushi and their sashimi and their tempura these days, and
I guess drinking sake with with Japanese food sort of
(05:07):
became sort of more of an acceptable thing to do.
And then people have you know, some of these chefs
now on these TV programs that we see on all
the time, they're starting to realize that saki actually goes
really well with not only Japanese food, but also with
with Western food. So now you know, saka is being
(05:30):
paired and matched with with all sorts of foods that
probably the Japanese would have never thought that their their
national drink would would go well with Richard.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
If someone has been a bit slow at getting mum
and Mother's Day present, is it easy to pick up
some zincor today?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Oh yes, yeah, yeah, definitely on your way home, maybe
this afternoon. But no, we we we we we do
online sales of course, and and and there was various
sales outlets all over the country. Yeah, so it's it's
a it's a time for sure, so please give it
(06:09):
a try. But people that sort of tend to think
asaki as being a you know, like a vodka or
a tequila, it's not. It's it's a wine and it's
a really delicate flavors and it really does go well
with lots of different things.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
Richard Raoul, thank you so much for your time today.
So that award winning sake is called zin Kuro.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
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