Sakura and Sake Dinner 2025

Our glasses overflow, filling the traditional square masu cups they sit inside as generously poured, diamond-clear sake catches the light, sparking both joy and curiosity. We have the choice of drinking from either vessel, or both, advises proud dad and Zenkuro Sake’s toji/master brewer Dave Joll as he introduces his gong-collecting Drip Pressed Shizuku Shibori Junmai Ginjo.  

Between sips of the lightly chilled sake’s mountain-fresh purity, Joll elaborates on the ancient Japanese techniques employed to fill our glasses and masu cups. As its name suggests, it’s an intensive labour of love, and while these practices are rarely used in Japan today, the results have caught the international sake fraternity’s attention. 

In just 10 years, Queenstown-based Zenkuro Sake has done the unthinkable – taking out gold in the Tokyo Sake Challenge earlier this year with their union of pristine snow-fed Southern Alps water, 60% polished high-grade Koji rice and the Kiwi curve-ball twist of Manuka timber . 

While the view stretching out across an illuminated Hagley Park is textbook stunning, what’s on our plates and filling our glasses proves more captivating. An impossibly high bar is set out the gate pairing an envy-inducing insta-worthy amuse bouche of sesame seared tuna with another gold winner from the Zenkuro stable, the aptly named Aoraki Junmai Daiginjo. The pinnacle of sake brewing, it’s served chilled in a wine glass which is fitting as while sake is brewed like beer, it should be enjoyed like wine. It’s also our gateway sake of the evening and its crystalline, gold-kissed hue and delicate bouquet of sun-warmed stone fruit and fresh-cut melon rind embody the lofty heights of its cloud-piercing namesake. 

The resulting marriage of the precision seared, ocean-fresh tuna, speckled with a black and white sesame seed crusting, laced with the bitter-citrus tang of yuzu and restrained chili hum of togarashi mayo embolden the sake’s classical fruit flourishes while a sumptuous, blurred mineral line segues to a creamy body and impossibly smooth finish. 

As the Kiwi-brewed international sake upstart celebrates its 10-year anniversary, Joll shares the story behind the company’s name, based on his twin obsession of Japan’s national drink and New Zealand’s national game. The resulting Zenkuro translating to ‘all-black’, as on-brand black glazed ceramic tokkuri (pitchers) are placed at our tables. 

Filled with Wakatipu Sleeping Giant Junmai Ginjo, this time served warm to awaken the sake’s gentler notes and palate, we learn the finer points of sake warming (you warm the vessel, not the sake) and sake pouring etiquette. The latter involves pouring for your companions, never yourself, adding a delightful interactive element and effortless conversation starter as our goats cheese and pumpernickel entrée arrives in carefully choreographed waves around the room. 

Tricked up with a delicately spiced honey and rambunctious fig marmalade, it’s a next level take on the classic flavour pairing with the sake’s full-bodied earthiness in perfect harmony with tang of the goats cheese, while the tiny pops of fig seeds deliver a textural delight.   

While sake can only be brewed during Japan’s colder months, Queenstown’s cooler climate allows for year-round brewing advises Joll. Even still, with year-round production, the artisan brewery releases just 5,000 litres a year. The majority is sold in New Zealand, through early adopters and holders of exceptional wine lists like The George hotel, while the balance heads over to Australia, the United States with some even making its way to the Land of the Rising Sun. 

McKenzie’s first main of duck breast is a perfectly plated vision on pale blue crockery and “the best duck we have had in a very long time”, according to my storied gourmand companions. They are not wrong, it’s rich and tender, packing a sassy savoury punch and among fine friends sharing the funky plate with the sweet earthiness of miso-infused buttery fine layers of kumara gratin and sharp tartness of a cherry-black gel.

While Zenkuro’s White Cloud Nigori Tokubetsu Junmai introduces a surprise nutty, toasted sesame and delicate mushroom earthy double down to the proceedings. Now all-white, following the tipping of the bottle to disperse the rice lees, it’s a silk-smooth, voluptuous stunner, refreshingly dry and delivering a luxurious viscosity and creamy mouthfeel – the union is sheer umami magic. 

“There’s a sake for every occasion and cuisine, including dessert” says Joll as he introduces his Zenkuro Plum sake, accompanying our fifth and final course. Utilising plums from the brewery’s own tree, and collected from neighbouring trees in Ninja-mode, this blushingly pink sake is no shrinking violet.

Whispers of fruit on the nose give way to brazen bottled sunshine juxtaposing a harmonious balance running the delicate, floral-sweetness of Manuka honey sidling up to an exquisite salty–sour-savoury finish. Paired with McKenzie’s beautifully brooding dark chocolate tart artistry, it’s a revelation.

The sake’s lilting sharpness dissects the robust rich decadence of the tart’s filling and playfully volleys with the bite of a ruby-hued plum gel, while a teasingly light vanilla fromage and impossibly short base ensures things don’t get too spikey. It’s a fittingly bittersweet finale, as the sun sets on another carefully crafted gastronomic odyssey at The George hotel.