Aug 28, 2026 · 18 min · 7 segments
Where does sake belong in the world of sommellerie? The answer is simple: at its very heart. In this episode of A Sommelier’s Insight, we speak with Hiromi Iuchi of the Japan Sake and Shochu Makers…
Hiromi IuchiGuest
Mark DeWolfHost
I think, too, as you know, or an ex-soul, I'm not sure if I still get to count because I kind of haven't been serving as much as I used to.
I think it's the diversity of sake, too, that always just blows my mind that I forget how many incredible styles there are.
As someone that trained in wine more than sake, particularly when I've got gray hair, we're only listening today, but anybody listening would know.
And the way we think about wine is as we talk about terroir, and as people are learning about sake, talking a little bit about polishing ratios, fermentations, what would you like for sommeliers to be talking about? Is it those technical points or other things that you think, you know, excite you about how to talk about sake at sommeliers to customers? I
There are many things that a sake can be paired well, even the wine cannot, you know, it's hard to match with the wine.
sake can you know cover that point you know let's say uh vinaigrette or something like acidic sake can cover the acidic it's because it's not the acidic drink it's one fifth of the wine so once that they discover that side of the sake in a food pairing and different from the wine pairing and then they can you know discover that and then they can move on to talk about why is this this one sake is different from the others and then so then maybe they would be interested in knowing about the differences and then the reason behind it so then that's how um sake can be that they can be educated or more interested in the sake so first of all i would like to introduce the food pairing
I think, too, as you know, or an ex-soul, I'm not sure if I still get to count because I kind of haven't been serving as much as I used to.
I think it's the diversity of sake, too, that always just blows my mind that I forget how many incredible styles there are.
As someone that trained in wine more than sake, particularly when I've got gray hair, we're only listening today, but anybody listening would know.
And the way we think about wine is as we talk about terroir, and as people are learning about sake, talking a little bit about polishing ratios, fermentations, what would you like for sommeliers to be talking about? Is it those technical points or other things that you think, you know, excite you about how to talk about sake at sommeliers to customers? I
There are many things that a sake can be paired well, even the wine cannot, you know, it's hard to match with the wine.
sake can you know cover that point you know let's say uh vinaigrette or something like acidic sake can cover the acidic it's because it's not the acidic drink it's one fifth of the wine so once that they discover that side of the sake in a food pairing and different from the wine pairing and then they can you know discover that and then they can move on to talk about why is this this one sake is different from the others and then so then maybe they would be interested in knowing about the differences and then the reason behind it so then that's how um sake can be that they can be educated or more interested in the sake so first of all i would like to introduce the food pairing
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