We make our rice wine vinegar using Junmai grade sake that is brewed in California using water from the Sierra Nevada. You will find that both of our sake-based vinegars are richer and rounder than commercial varieties.
Yes, these are just different ways of describing the same type of vinegar. You might even see references to sake vinegar. Sake is just the Japanese term for rice wine and it would also be the same thing.
The California Junmai Rice Wine Vinegar is simply slow fermented and aged in old rye whiskey barrels. The Montmorency Cherry Rice Wine Vinegar uses the same sake but is co-fermented with tart cherries—this is what it would be like if red wine and rice wine vinegars had a baby. It does not take like cherries, it just picks up the tannins from the tart cherries.
Both of our rice wine vinegars are made from Junmai grade sake brewed in California. We never use ‘left overs’—we make our rice wine vinegar from the same sake you are served at many of your favorite sushi restaurants.
Our rice wine vinegar is made and aged in our vinegar works north of Boston. We never outsource or, in food industry speak, “co-pack” our vinegars. We make them, age them, bottle them, and it’s our bad handwriting you see on the back label.
No, never. Our rice wine is made from sake, water and vinegar bacteria. Our cherry rice wine is also co-fermented with tart Montmorency cherries but no sugar is added to the cherries.
Some commercial rice wine vinegars are flavored, sweetened, or seasoned. We prefer to have you control the flavor of your dishes and focus on producing only naturally fermented rice wine vinegars with nothing added after fermentation.
Sake is Japanese for rice wine. There are many types of sakes and they are often classified by the type or condition of rice used. In particular the level of polish of the rice often translates into the type of sake. We use Junmai grade sake which is made with highly polished rice grains and is considered by many to be one of the most sophisticated styles of sake or rice wine.
