SummerFall: A Sparkling Sake Made in the US From California Rice

SummerFall describes itself as an easy and odd sparkling sake, which is a rare piece of honest product copy.

What It Is

Founder Takuma Inagawa built the brand around a stated mission of sake for everyone, and expanded it into the US, which is the largest sake market outside Japan.

The sake is made in America with locally sourced California rice, and the process borrows from wine fermentation methods rather than following the sake playbook exactly.

That combination is the whole idea. Not an imitation of a Japanese product, and not a novelty either. A sake made where the rice grows, by someone willing to take techniques from an adjacent craft.

California Rice Is Not a Compromise

Worth stating plainly, because the assumption runs the other way.

California's Sacramento Valley grows a great deal of Japanese-style short and medium grain rice, and the growing conditions are genuinely good for it. Several breweries in Japan and the US alike use California-grown rice, and blind tastings have not been kind to the idea that origin alone decides quality.

The advantage of brewing where the rice grows is the same one Dassai Blue makes in Hyde Park: less time in transit, fresher raw material, and a shorter route from the tank to the glass.

The Can

Canned sake still reads as a downgrade to a lot of people. It should not.

Aluminum blocks light entirely, which glass does not, and light damages sake. A can is airtight, unbreakable, chills faster, and a single-serve format means the bottle is never sitting half-finished and oxidizing in a fridge.

For a sparkling sake the case is even stronger, since a can holds pressure better than most closures.

What It Tastes Like

Refreshing and vibrant, with bright melon and pear notes and a crisp, clean finish. The wine-derived fermentation approach shows up as acidity, which keeps it from reading as simply sweet.

It is built to be easy, and it does not pretend otherwise.

How to Drink It

Very cold, straight from the can or poured into a glass. No ceremony required, which is the point of the product.

If you are new to sake and have found the traditional presentation intimidating, this is a low-stakes place to begin.

Pair It With

Lighter izakaya food. Edamame, karaage, anything fried where the bubbles and acidity do the cutting.

Try It at Juraku

SummerFall is on the sake list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side. Check the current menu or ask us what is open.