I received an email recently from Wetlands Sake, reminding me that there is a sake brewery in New Orleans. Moreover, they’re using a short grain rice developed by the LSU Agriculture Center that is being grown just for them. The brewery comes from the minds of two New Orleans-natives: Nan Wallis and Lindsey Brower.
I don’t know what I expected when I first tasted the sparkling blood orange sake that Wetlands is canning in-house, but I liked it and I say that as a person who does not normally like “flavors” in my wine/beer/liquors. The worst thing I have consumed in the last decade was a “king cake” flavored vodka and I will fight anyone who says that stuff is even tolerable. But the sake was good.
I should say at this point that I was given samples of the product. If you’ve read this blog for any length of time, you’ll know that doesn’t matter to me. I write about what I like, so if I hadn’t liked this stuff, I wouldn’t have written about it. With that in the rear-view mirror…
Hector Meier is the head brewer. He has a background in engineering, which is nice when you’re in an industry that relies on precision for success. He’s overseeing a pretty sweet operation. It looks to be all stainless and tiles, but at the same time they’re carefully managing the koji (a mold used in the production of sake), the temperature and the specific gravity of the product. It’s not all “by the numbers” is what I’m saying.
The unfiltered sake was a little sweet and a little unctuous. It tasted like a lot of the good unfiltered sakes I’ve had, but I am a heretic in that I prefer filtered sake. I liked the sparkling sakes, too.
A lot of people associate sake with the microwaved carafes served at sushi restaurants. There are some sakes made to be consumed warm, but those are not the sort of things they’re doing at Wetlands. They’re aiming higher, and it looks like they’re going to hit their target.
If you’ve tried any of their products, please let me know.
