SAKE DAY: The Kome Collective Quotient!

This one is personal. As the Komé Collective take over this newsletter, it is the greatest honor to announce that our own JOHN GAUNTNER has been named this year’s International Sake Soul of the Year — and there is no better place to celebrate him than right here, with this crew, on this day. 

As a reminder, this award is an International Achievement Award that celebrates an individual’s dedication and devotion to sake, as well as their personal influence on the history of sake around the world. Past honorable recipients of this award include Kazu Yamazaki, Tamiko Ishidate, Marcus Pakiser, Blake Richardson, and Masao Aisawa, who, in the tradition of passing the torch, was the one to notify John of this honor. 

John is recognized as the world’s leading non-Japanese sake expert, and he has truly paved the way for so many of us around the world who have the privilege of being sake educators and experts today. John is the most prolific writer of books on sake to this date, developed the Sake Education Council where many of us got our start with sake, and still keeps us up to date on the most current developments in sake through Sake Industry News. I also have the distinct pleasure of traveling with John in Japan and the US multiple times a year as we continue to evolve our sake portfolio in Japan and spread the gospel throughout the US. Despite having been the guy to start so much of this, he shows no sign of slowing down, and we are all the better for it. 

Please look for John at SAKE DAY to raise a glass to this incredible achievement!

KANPAI, and thanks for taking the time to get to know what makes us so great over this read!