A ten-year-aged koshu matured to classical music and the sea sounds of Sado Island opens Nobu Kuala Lumpur’s September Omakase, with six Hokusetsu pours across the menu.
Sake does not usually come with a soundtrack, but a special sakagura or sake brewery is doing something different. For ten years, Hokusetsu’s Ongakushu Koshu is matured while a curated blend of classical music and the natural sea sounds of Sado Island played around it.
In the past, sake shipped by sea was once mellowed by the gentle roll of the waves, and Hokusetsu set out to recreate that effect through sound. The result is known as the Music Sake, and at Nobu Kuala Lumpur‘s September Omakase, it was the centrepiece of the evening.
The Kuala Lumpur Omakase experience pairs the restaurant’s contemporary Japanese-Peruvian cooking and seasonal ingredients with Hokusetsu, a brewery Nobu says is served exclusively at its restaurants outside Japan. Six pours run through the menu, and the Music Sake was the headliner. Most sake is drunk young, so a ten-year age is unusual. Koshu is the name for aged sake, and time tends to deepen its body and richness, which is the opposite of the light, fresh style many people expect.
It was poured with the Ankimonaka, a monaka wafer filled with ankimo (monkfish liver), which is not an ingredient that tolerates a timid partner. The chef’s instruction was to fold the shell over and eat it in a single bite, like a small sandwich. The filling was creamy and pâté-rich, and the koshu was deep and round enough to meet it at its own level instead of cutting through it. Opening with the oldest, deepest sake set a high bar for every pour that followed.
That is one of three approaches a sake pairing can take. A pour can match a dish by sharing its weight, cut through it to refresh the palate, or soften it with a touch of sweetness. Sake is brewed from rice, water, koji and yeast, and it is low in acidity and high in umami, which is why it suits rich seafood and fatty cuts so well. The omakase used all three.
The second course brought Hokusetsu Junmai Daiginjo “The Sake,” the first sake the brewery crafted exclusively for Chef Nobu Matsuhisa. Junmai means the sake is made with no added alcohol, and daiginjo is the most refined grade, with the rice milled down to half its original size or less, which is where the delicate floral fragrance comes from. It was set against the Chef’s Sushi Selections of chutoro, kamasu, kinmedai and a blue crab sushi cup. The sake was light enough to leave the fish intact, and it cut through the fat of the chutoro.
The Katsuo Sashimi Salad then brought in the Hokusetsu Ginjo Nigori, cloudy and creamy with a touch of sweetness. Nigori means cloudy: the sake is filtered coarsely, so some of the rice stays in the glass. It softened the bonito’s smoky, savoury edge. The Chilean Seabass Moromi Miso swung the other way with the cleaner, drier Hokusetsu Honjozo Yukino Hibiki. Honjozo is a style with a small amount of distilled alcohol added during brewing, which lightens the body and gives it a crisp finish. The dry sake balanced the richness of the glazed fish.
The A5 Wagyu with Goma Truffle, the heaviest hitter on the menu, called up a second junmai daiginjo, the Hokusetsu TK 40. It cut through the beef and truffle and drew out the beef’s savoury sweetness. The Cold Cha Soba stood alone as the one course without a pour, and the evening ended on the Tropical Citrus dessert with Hokusetsu Umeshu, a plum liqueur. Fruity, sweet and slightly tart, it was the favourite pairing of the night.
From a ten-year-aged koshu to a plum liqueur, the list covered a great deal of ground in a single sitting. Not one of the pairings read as an afterthought, and the best way to take them was bite, sip, then back to the food.
The September Omakase is priced at RM750++ per person, with the curated Hokusetsu Sake Pairing at an additional RM300++ per person. We’d always take the pairing, because the Music Sake is not a pour you will find in many places.
@nobu_kualalumpur | noburestaurants.com
Photos by Valerie Chong
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