The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide

This is a follow up to the blog I wrote about The Sake Shope in Honolulu. It's really time for me to learn more about sake because it is part of my cultural heritage and it is the perfect pairing with Asian foods.
My husband was ahead of the curve, having purchased this book some time ago and I have neglected reading it until now. The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide was written by Philip Harper and published in 2006.
The book is excellently written and illustrated. For sake, it is all about the rice polishing ratio and I found a beautiful illustration that shows just that.¹

The illustration shows from left to right unpolished rice to the most polished rice with the percentages referring to the amount of rice that is left after polishing.
When I went to The Sake Store, I had a question for Nadine which was "What is Junmai?" because I had been seeing sake labels like Junmai Dai Ginjo and just Junmai so that was very confusing for me. Nadine answered that, "Junmai means that the sake was made with rice, water and koji. If the label doesn't say 'Junmai' and has only something like 'Dai Ginjo', then the sake can have added alcohol." Wow! who knew!
Speaking of labels, just as in a wine label, a sake label must contain the following information.¹

I think it's time to taste some sake! Stay tuned!
References:
1. Harper, Philip, The Book of Sake A Connoisseur's Guide, Kodansha International, 2006. Rice polishing illustration from page 34. Sake label illustation page 30.