Mastering Shochu

Set to host a tasting at the Club, shochu expert Christopher Pellegrini explains the appeal of Japan’s hugely popular liquor.

Before Christopher Pellegrini had drained his first glass of shochu at a Tokyo restaurant in 2002, he was hooked. It was new taste territory after years working in Vermont craft beer breweries.

“The aroma tipped me off that it was not the nihonshu [sake] I was accustomed to sipping,” says Pellegrini, who leads a tasting at the Club this month. “I ended up trying a few different types of shochu that evening, and I was flabbergasted that they were all shochu. They were entirely different spirits as far as I could tell—sweet potato, barley, rice—but they were all called the same thing.”

While sake is brewed exclusively from rice, shochu’s varied distilled bases intrigued Pellegrini. Over the next decade, he visited more than 100 distilleries across Kyushu and Okinawa, the shochu heartlands of southern Japan, and talked shop with countless distillers and manufacturers.

While writing 2014’s The Shochu Handbook, though, Pellegrini knew he needed to take the step from shochu fan to certified expert. At that time, there was only one way to become a bona fide Sake Service Institute shochu guru.

The sommelier exam demands an in-depth knowledge of the history of shochu and awamori, Okinawa’s indigenous, rice-based liquor, as well as the particularities of producing and serving each. Add a blind tasting practical, split it over four 50-minute sessions and administer it entirely in Japanese.

“It was anything but easy,” says Pellegrini, 40, who taught himself the Japanese terminology and kanji required for certification, “and it probably shaved a couple years off my life, but, in the end, I was able to pass.”

He became the first non-Japanese candidate to pass the exam and later became a Sake School of America-certified shochu adviser.

Pellegrini continues his shochu evangelism at his Club talk, where he will introduce three brands of “well-balanced and easy-sipping” shochu: a barley shochu from Nagasaki, a rice-based shochu from Kumamoto and a sweet potato version from Kagoshima. The evening will also feature a taro awamori blend with “a nice balance of rice graininess and sweetness.”

Any shochu neophyte may well wonder if there is a wrong way to drink it. According to Pellegrini, not really.

“Novices and serious fans can basically enjoy the same spirit brand at the same table if it’s served to each person’s tastes,” he says. “Serving shochu straight, on the rocks, with cool water, hot water or club soda will yield vastly different drinks.”

For beginners, Pellegrini recommends a barley or rice shochu with chilled water or soda. Aficionados might enjoy awamori on the rocks.

Pellegrini saves a special warning for Japan’s best-selling sweet potato shochu, lest first-timers end up an unabashed expert like himself.

“Sweet potato shochu is a little more of an acquired taste for some,” he says. “However, like hoppy craft beer or peaty whisky, once you catch the sweet potato bug, there’s no turning back.”

Meet the Author: Christopher Pellegrini
Nov 14 | 6:30–8pm

Words: Owen Ziegler
Image: Enrique Balducci