After only a couple of days my “‘Hakai-O’ Sake Godzilla“, I blogged about recently, arrived in the post! No.43 of 3000. Nice.

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As well as having more than a passing interest in booze, I’m also quite keen on the Godzilla and other Toho Monster movies, and it’s not often these two worlds come together.

So I was very excited to read about Konishi Brewing Company releasing a Special Edition Shirayuki barley Shochu in a Godzilla pottery bottle!

Apparently the brewery were approached by Toho Co Ltd (makers of the Godzilla movies) to think of ways of celebrating 55 years since Godzilla’s birth (the first screening of the original Godzilla movie was in November 1954).

Konishi decided to release their special shochu in a pottery bottle based on the Godzilla from the 1989 movie “Godzilla vs Biollante“. (The Godzilla monster design changes every few films).

Unfortunately, although they’re calling it SAKE Godzilla (SAKE ゴジラ), it’s actually shochu not sake.
I prefer sake – shochu gives me killer hangovers – but in Japanese “sake” is actually “alcohol“, not what English speakers call sake (the rice wine). In Japanese that is “Nihonshu” (although people do say sake in Japanese for nihonshu sometimes so it can get a bit confusing at times).

The bottle was designed by the artist Nariaki Ito and Koichi Kawakita who directed six of the recent Godzilla movies, and was made by a famous Japanese pottery maker Kanekoh Ceramic Corporation.

Kudos for Konishi Brewing for having a go at releasing an English press release for this too, although I have a feeling the translation was done by babelfish or Google translate, as it contains some great phrases like

Delight to get drunk and become enthusiastic on Godzilla this evening

Godzilla-shaped pottery bottle also produce to respect a sense of such mind after drinking.

Although I’m glad they tried, as I wouldn’t have been able to find out any of the facts I’ve just written about!

The shochu is a 100% barley shochu made with water from Rokko Mountain apparently, and although I don’t really like shochu, I couldn’t miss out on an item like this, so one of the 3000 limited editions is winging it’s way to me as we speak!
A bit pricey at ¥10,500 ($100), but hey, it’s a Godzilla bottle!

More information can be found on their website here. (Although it’s all in Japanese except the afore mentioned English press release).

It’s coming up to that Beaujolais Nouveau time of the year again, and due to time differences Japan always gets it first, and is probably the only country that still gets excited about it.

The convenience stores have pre-order flyers so you can make sure you get yours as soon as possible.

My boss always gets everyone 2 bottles of Beaujolais Nouveau each year, and hopefully this year won’t be any different.

Mind you, I wasn’t very impressed with last years wine, so fingers crossed it’s better in 2011.

Some more news from the good people at Master of Malt.

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After launching the incredibly popular Bathtub Gin, Master of Malt is proud to announce the release of Professor Cornelius Ampleforth’s second product: Proprietary Barley Spirit Drink.

The drink is based on a centuries-old technique of treating whisky casks with “Paxarette“, a rich, syrupy flavouring which originated from the Spanish town of Pajarete, and is made by boiling down grape juice and sherry.

Proprietary Barley Spirit Drink takes this idea, and goes one step further, reducing deliciously sweet Pedro Ximenez dessert sherry until it resembles black treacle, and then mixing it with the finest 10 year old, sherry cask matured Speyside single malt whisky.

The result is the ultimate Winter drink: an unctuously sweet, syrupy concoction that is rather reminiscent of Christmas Pudding, laden with brandy butter!

Tasting Notes

Nose: Immense sherry tones on the nose, coupled with juicy, sticky prunes and muscovado sugar. Hints of nutmeg, toffee brittle, with astoundingly creamy notes of Christmas Pudding, laden with brandy butter.

Palate: Sweet, creamy and incredibly juicy. Those Christmas Pudding flavours are so evocative. The palate is chewy and thick, coasting the tongue with oily toffee and molasses. Cinnamon, dates and golden syrup.

Finish: Spicy and warming, notes of sweet espresso coffee and dessert sherry. Suggestions of rose petal jelly, allspice and baklava.

About Professor Cornelius Ampleforth

• An enigmatic, perhaps fictitious mad-professor-type who creates incredible drinks using old-fashioned techniques and methods
• All bottles packaged in beautiful brown-paper-wrapped bottles, wax-dipped and wound with flax twine.
• Each bottle features a stunning Victorian-apothecary-inspired print flaunting the delicious ingredients within

About Master of Malt

• Established in 1985
• One of the UK’s leading Online Whisky Merchants, with a huge range of whiskies, rum, brandies, gins, cocktails and other fine spirits.
• UK Next Day Delivery from £6.95

Follow Master of Malt

• On Twitter: @MasterOfMalt
• On Facebook: MasterOfMalt

If you’re ever in Itami Airport in Osaka, head over to the far end of the West Terminal and in the corner you’ll find a sake shop that houses a wall of sake tasting vending machines.

So you take one of the small sake tasting cups, place it in the machine and insert your ¥100. Press the button of the sake of your choice and watch it fill up.

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