Vancouver Sake Fest 2017
Vancouver's very own Sake Festival is hosted by “The Sake Association of British Columbia”. I was invited by Maggi Mei as her media plus one invite. The festival was held at The Imperial in Chinatown. There was more than 21 sake brewers present at the event offering a variety of different styles of sake from Japan, US and Canada. Surprising to me that BC also has their own local sake brewery. They even grow their own rice here which is pretty awesome to know!
This is a public event and tickets go on sale for $65 which is a steal considering there are over 100 different sakes to try. If you find one you like you can do repeats as the drinks were unlimited! There was even food provided at the event. I don't know much about sake because I wasn't exposed to good sake all my life. I sampled more varieties of sake that night than my entire life. After this festival I have gained much more appreciation to quality sake and will continue to look for the good stuff.
As there were so many different sakes to try, I recommend trying as many as possible and writing down the ones you like. Make sure you ask the brewer if it is possible to buy it in BC. We found one we absolutely loved but it wasn't sold here. The brewer allowed us to purchase through them if we ordered an entire case which we did! My favourite one of the night was the Matcha Umeshu from Choya and Rei Junmai Dai Ginjo. I enjoyed most of the sparkling and cloudy types of sake!
With so much sake pouring, it is easy to drink too much. The nice thing is the organisers have a shuttle bus that takes you back to the waterfront skytrain station so attendees can get home responsibly. I am happy to attend this sake festival for my first time and would definitely be interested to come back again next year!
