Details
Brand: Nankai
Distillery: Machida Distillery
Location: Tatsugo, Amami Island, Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan
Ingredients: 80% kokuto sugar, 20% rice
Koji: white (shiro)
Distillation: vacuum
Alcohol: 24% (48 proof)
Price: $$/$$$
Introduction
When Paul Nakayama married a lovely woman from Amami Island, little did he know his life in tech would soon be over. On a visit to his in-laws he discovered kokuto shochu. Not one to simply sit back and enjoy something newly discovered, he made a point to visit a local distillery that made a brand that caught his attention, and the rest is, as we often say, history.
Paul grew up in California where there is a large 2nd or even 3rd generation Japanese immigrant population, but just as with many non-Japanese Americans, shochu is relatively unknown since the first, second, or third shochu booms occurred after many of their parents or grandparents immigrated to the US.
Paul and his business partners got to work and developed Nankai, a light, clean vacuum distilled shochu specifically designed for the California market. The branding is on point. Nankai is literally translated as “southern seas”, which perfectly described the semi-tropical ocean surrounding the Amami Islands south of Kyushu. The label design is a slick modern interpretation of the classic rising sun over the blue ocean.
Since its launch, Paul and his team have been busy creating fanciful shochu cocktails and evangelizing for shochu all over California. Not content to rest on their laurels, they have now released Nankai Gold, a 43% ABV barrel-aged, blended kokuto shochu that recently picked up a gold medal at the prestigious 2019 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Tasting Notes
At first whiff, Nankai smells faintly grassy, which is common in kokuto shochu owing to how kokuto sugar is made from fresh cut cane and that fresh grassiness is a sign of well-made kokuto sugar. Sugar cane is, after all, a tall perennial grass. It is still pretty wild that they can capture the grassy esters after fermentation and distillation.
The second aroma, which ends up being the primary aroma once the grass recedes is that of red cherries. There is also a hint of raspberry and milk chocolate giving the overall impression of a chocolate-berry dessert. Other aromas are so faint as to leave you wondering if you really smelled them or not. The faintest hint of acetone and must. These are not particularly uncommon in shochu, but are certainly acquired tastes. Fortunately, neither comes through in the flavor or once diluted.
Tasting straight, this is a light drink owing to its 24% ABV and vacuum distillation. The flavor is all chocolate covered cherry candy with a short finish.
Drinking Styles
On the rocks, the fruit transforms from chocolate covered cherries to mango and pear notes. After further reflection, this mango + pear = kiwi. Sweetly acidic. It is a very easy drinker.
Two drinking styles I would not particularly recommend are with hot water (generally vacuum distilled shochu disappears warm) and with soda. I am personally a big fan of vacuum distilled shochu with soda, but in the case of Nankai the lovely fruit aromas completely disappeared and the flavor was distinctly of under-ripe fruit.
Nevertheless, for those of you who would like more dilution than afforded by straight or on the rocks, I offer you “choi-mizu” (on the rocks with a splash of water – perhaps 10% additional dilution). With this preparation, Nankai really shines. The flavor is of ripe fruit, particularly cherries. Extremely round and balanced.
The Verdict: Worth Drinking
Having been fortunate enough to drink Nankai at an LA izakaya with Paul and his family, I have to say this is just about as sessionable a kokuto shochu as you might find. The cherry forward fruit flavors are extremely flexible and easy drinking. My personal preference is with a splash of cold water so the fruit flavors can really shine through.
KANPAI!
