Shochu that goes with shaoxing wine (drinking grade)
Wine, liqueur and spirits
Buy the drinking grade from a shop with a liquor licence, not the salted cooking bottle, which will wreck the drink. A bar spoon is enough.
Best bottles for shaoxing wine (drinking grade)
The strongest matches in the catalogue, across every style. Everything below is the same ranking opened out by what the shochu is made from.
Grain and roast are the same flavour arrived at twice, once by the still and once by the pan.
barley, umami, rich, sharp
barley, citrus, melon, white peach
barley, umami
barley, roasted barley, sesame, grassy
barley, caramel, rich, sweet
barley, vanilla, chocolate, nutty
Rice shochu stirred with vermouth is a martini at half the proof.
rice, umami, rich, aged
barley, earthy, mineral, pepper
barley, sesame, caramel, chocolate
barley, roasted barley, chestnut, vanilla
Grouped by what the shochu is made from, because that is the level the reasoning works at: what this does to an imo shochu is a fact about imo shochu rather than about one bottle. Within each style, the strongest matches and anything poured at our bar come first. The ranking is the same engine that recommends a mixer from a bottle, run the other way round.
Mugi shochu
52 more, all of them in Mugi shochu
Kome shochu
Rice shochu stirred with vermouth is a martini at half the proof.
15 more, all of them in Kome shochu
Awamori
3 more, all of them in Awamori