Greetings,
Here it is, the first Sake Professional Course Alumnae newsletter. In case that alone does not tell you enough, this newsletter has been created for, and is going out to, only those folks that have taken my Sake Professional Course, be it in Japan or the US.
Why
Why did I start this newsletter? Because I felt the need to develop a community and forum for exchange amongst those of us that love sake and know it well. And I also felt an obligation to keep in touch and keep informed all those that have taken my course since, as I told you when you took it, "you own me now."
Who
As mentioned, this is going out only to those that have taken the Sake Professional Course. That group includes SPCI ('03), SPCII ('04), SPCIII ('06), SPCIV ('07), SPC V ('08), SPC VI ('09), SPC2-I ('08), SPC2-II ('09), SPCNY07, and SPCSF08. Add to this two or three individuals that have taken special versions of the course, and the total is a smidgeon less than 200 people.
What
What can you expect from this newsletter? A monthly publication consisting of relevant announcements and statements of progress. Information about upcoming courses, events, and tests. An occasional (time permitting) article on something sake related that is not for the masses, but more appropriate for those that know sake well, written to an audience about which I do not need to worry whether they know what ginjo, junmai, koji and toji mean. And, finally, an occasional offer of something that I deem may be of interest to readers.
Blog
Also: I have begun a blog to serve two purposes. One, to archive these newsletters, and two, to provide a forum of interaction for all those that have taken the courses. That blog is here: spcgrad.wordpress.com/. CAVEAT: I am not the most savvy dude in the world when it comes to blogs and blogging and all that, and as such I ask your patience in developing the platform. Right now, it is very, very simple. I will add some bells and whistles as appropriate and needed as time goes on. I am open to suggestions as well! And currently, anyone can read it and write to it, although it is hidden from the search engines. I will tweak all that in time, but for now, feel free to check it out.
What not to expect.
-A pretty blog, at least not for now. As alluded to above, I am one step above clueless.
-A pretty newsletter. I will not likely get around to putting in cool photos and stuff like that; it will rather serve as a medium to spread information and keep us all in touch as a community. I will do my best, however, to keep it regular and monthly, with the current aimed-at date being the 20th of each month.
There you have it: the announcements and the background. I sincerely hope it serves us all, and sake as well. Please enjoy it and feel free to comment.
Warm regards,
John
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Announcements Sake Professional Course - Stateside
This year's Stateside Sake Professional Course will take place in New York City, July 27, 28 and 29 (Monday to Wednesday). The venue will be decided shortly, but it will be in Manhattan. Obviously, all of you know the content. This cost for the course this year is $775. More information, should you want to remind yourself - or pass it on - can be found here: www.sake-world.com/html/spcny.html. By all means, please convey this to associates, friends, and any one else you might feel interested.
Level I Sake Specialist Test
The Level I Sake Specialist Test will be held in New York on the afternoon of July 29, just after the completion of the SPC Course, as well as the morning of the 30th (so that those that just finished the course can take the night to study if they wish). The test is open to anyone that has taken the Level I exam. Note, there is no charge to take the test the first time; one shot at it is your by virtue of having taken the course. (After that there is a small re-taking charge, however.)
If you are interested in taking this test, please let me know by return email.
Certificates
To Those Who Passed The Level I and/or Level II Sake Specialist Exams in Jan/Feb:
Your certificates are on the way! Sincere apologies for the delay. My wife, Mayu, in particular asked that I convey said apologies. We just have been swamped with work and life since then. But they have been printed, they look cool, and they will be mailed out this week. Thank you for your patience.
Sake Education Council Update
The Sake Education Council, the body that is/will be behind the testing and certification that has been in place for just over a year now, is moving forward, albeit at a sloth's pace. My current thinking is unchanged, to form a non-profit organization to be the main education and licensing body behind this. But of course, there are a million details. I am working with a distinguished law firm to make this happen, but things are moving slowly mostly because of other work and priorities, to tell the truth. But I think it is important that there be something behind the testing and certification than some guy in Kamakura, Japan, so I fully intend to make this happen as soon as I can. Your support in many forms is and will be appreciated.
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Sake Tidbit: Bishonen is Gone You heard i t here first: As of April 16, officially anyway, Bishonen of Kumamoto has filed for bankruptcy. You may have known of the company and brand, you may not have, but they are for all intents and purposes gone now. They were a fairly large, fairly prominent brewer from Kumamoto. Their sake was decent, in particular their popular junmai-shu.
Why? What drove them under? Mainly, the tainted rice scandal here. For those of you that may have missed it, Japan, in order to conform to GATT stuff, began to import rice from China. But they brought in just enough to fulfill requirements, and deliberately brought in rice that had mold and other nasties in it so as to not have it go into the eating rice distribution, but instead be used for making glue et al. So far so good.
But a very unscrupulous company, Mikasa Foods, knowingly put it into the food chain. So there was this nasty rice going into kids school lunches, retirement homes's meals, shochu, and into the supplies of one lone sake producer, Bishonen. When the news got out, the sake was avoided like the plague. No revenue, no survival.
There was more, though. Apparently the company had been taking out some less than fully above board loans from a company related somehow to Mikasa Foods for the last 20 years as part of an agreement to buy rice less expensively from Mikasa Foods. In the filing, they claimed 19 "oku" yen, or about $19M US in debt.
The company was founded in 1879, and at their peak in 1987 they boasted sales of roughly US$24M, but drops in demand had escorted those figures down to about a fifth of their once formidable level. Surely, all this pressure had the president searching for cheaper rice to make product less expensively. But that is nothing more than surmisal on my part, and is a realm into which I should not venture.
Their web page has been replaced by short, terse letter from the president that says "I have betrayed all of our supporters. No matter how bad business might have gotten, there is no excuse for my actions. I deeply apologize." It is, in the end, a shame and unfortunate.
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FinallyLook for a special offer to come out in a couple of days from me about an ebook I am ju  st about to publish, something I have been working on for a long, long time about which no one in the traditional publishing industry expressed interest. If you are no longer involved with sake, God forbid, or for any other reason you prefer to not receive this email, then please let me know. If you know someone that has taken the Sake Professional Course and has a new email address, or you prefer another yourself, please let me know that as well. Regards, John Gauntner Sake World, Inc. www.sake-world.com |
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