LONDON — Kensuke Shichida, the head of a centuries-old sake brewery in southern Japan, had spent a dizzying week in London restaurants tasting a variety of exotic and confounding dishes: pub food, gourmet burgers, French food, Angus beef, ceviche.倫敦——日本南部一家有一百多年歷史的清酒廠的老板七田謙介(Kensuke Shichida)，在倫敦的餐館里度過了頭暈目眩的一周。他品嘗了各種充滿異國風情又令人費解的菜式：酒吧餐、廚師漢堡、法式大餐、安格斯牛肉，還有檸汁腌魚生。The experience left him slightly bewildered and slightly ill, he said, suffering from a food hangover.這場體驗讓他有點困惑，還有點不適，七田謙介說，就好像經歷了一次由食物引發的宿醉。

But Mr. Shichida, 43, is on a mission, he said, to bring his family-brewed sake to European restaurants and pair it with Western cuisine, which means charting new territory. It is an exercise of necessity. Japan is proud of its sake heritage, but sales have been falling for decades, and Mr. Shichida and a number of other brewers are trying to help reverse its decline before it is too late.現年43歲的七田謙介說，他現在有一個目標，就是要把自己家族釀制的清酒推廣到歐洲的餐館，讓它與西餐搭配，開辟新的市場。七田謙介這么做實屬無奈。清酒一直是日本人引以為傲的傳統飲品，但它的銷量幾十年來卻在不斷下滑。趁現在還不算太晚，七田謙介和另外幾位釀酒商都在設法扭轉頹勢。“I’d be lying if I said pairing sake with burgers didn’t hurt my pride as a Japanese,” he admitted at a recent dinner, hesitantly poking a piece of lamb kidney and sweetbreads — a first for him — with his fork. “But we need to be exploring this path to survive as a brewer.”“如果我說，清酒配漢堡不會傷害我作為日本人的自豪感，那是在撒謊，”七田謙介最近在一次晚餐時承認道。他一邊說著，一邊用叉子遲疑地戳向一片羊腰和一堆羊雜。那是他第一次吃羊雜。“但作為釀酒商要存活下來，我們必須嘗試這條路。”“Sake is surprisingly versatile,” he added. “I’ve discovered it goes well with many Western recipes, perhaps even better than wine or beer.”“清酒的搭配范圍之廣令人稱奇，”他接著說。“我發現它與很多西方菜式都可以很好地搭配，甚至可能比葡萄酒和啤酒還好。”Fresh oysters, for example, usually go pair well with Champagne or Chablis, which have a crisp acidity. But Mr. Shichida, who runs the 140-year-old Tenzan brewery, says sake works better. The drink is mellower and less acidic, and its cleansing properties help remove the oysters’ briny taste, he said. And sake’s umami — a savory sensation considered to be the “fifth taste” — helps improve their fleshiness.例如，法國生蠔一般都以口感酸爽的香檳或夏布利酒搭配。但七田謙介卻說，清酒配生蠔效果更佳。他經營的天山酒造(Tenzan brewery)已有140年歷史。他說，這是因為清酒更香醇、沒那么酸，由于能去除邪味，它還可以消除生蠔的腥氣。此外，清酒的鮮味(umami)——經常被稱為“第五種味道”——則提升了食物的質感。At a recent dinner at Hixter, a restaurant here, the head chef, Ronnie Murray, paired a plate of Launceston lamb and meaty girolle mushrooms with Mr. Shichida’s 75 Junmai, a full-bodied sake that uses unpolished rice, a rarity even in Japan. The Japanese generally prize sake that contains highly polished rice, which produces a flowery and smooth taste. By contrast, Mr. Shichida’s sake had a round, woody flavor with a tempered acidity that complemented the earthy lamb.最近在倫敦Hixter餐廳享用晚餐時，主廚朗尼·莫瑞(Ronnie Murray)以一盤朗塞斯頓羔羊肉和有肉質口感的雞油菌，來搭配七田謙介的“純米75”。這種清酒用糙米釀造，口味濃烈，即使在日本也很稀有。日本人一般喜歡用精米釀造的清酒，因為精米能帶來一種優雅和柔滑的味道。相比之下，七田謙介的清酒則飽滿直接，酸味受到了抑制，與味道濃厚的羊肉相得益彰。“Wine tends to be more acidic and cuts through the taste of meat,” said Gareth Groves, the head of marketing at Bibendum Wine, a retailer that recently announced that it was stocking sake from Japan. “Sake is less about cutting through the food than sitting alongside it.”“葡萄酒往往口感更酸，會蓋過肉的味道，”必比登葡萄酒(Bibendum Wine)市場營銷負責人加雷思·格羅夫斯(Gareth Groves)說。這家零售商最近宣布，從日本進口了大量清酒。“清酒不太會蓋住食物的味道，能夠互不影響。”Most Westerners generally view sake as a clear-colored liquor to be savored with sushi and sashimi, with an alcohol content of 15 to 20 percent. It is thought to have originated in the seventh century and is considered the drink of the gods in the Shinto religion.多數西方人只是知道，清酒顏色澄清，要搭配壽司或刺身，酒精度在15%到20%之間。清酒據信起源于7世紀，而在日本的神道教里，清酒則被視作神祗的飲品。There are 80 types of rice specially designed to produce sake, which is made from fermented rice, water and koji — white rice imbued with a special kind of mold. While wine is typically served only in glasses, sake can be poured into a variety of cups that alter its fragrance, including earthenware, lacquerware, glass, porcelain and box-shaped ones made from Japanese cedar.專門用來釀造清酒的大米有80種。清酒是由酒釀、水和酒曲釀成的。酒曲是加入了某種特殊霉菌的大米。葡萄酒一般只用玻璃杯盛，而清酒卻可以倒入不同的杯皿，酒香也會因為容器的不同而略有差異。可以盛放清酒的容器包括陶器、漆器、玻璃、瓷器，還有用日本柳杉制做的盒型容器。Sake ranges from sparkling, somewhat similar to Champagne, to namazake, which tastes best straight from the vat, unpasteurized. Meaning “raw sake,” namazake offers a taste of the ethereal, as it can sour within hours. Some other sake uses yuzu, a Japanese citrus, making the drink a tangy cousin of the Italian limoncello, while umeshu is kind of a plummy version of the Hungarian dessert wine Tokaj.清酒種類繁多，從有些類似香檳的發泡酒，到未經殺菌處理的生酒。生酒直接從酒桶汲出時味道最佳，口感妙不可言，但幾個小時就會變質。還有一些清酒是用日本柚釀制的，這種柑橘屬水果又稱香橙，味道就像是意大利檸檬酒(limoncello)的濃郁版。而梅酒則仿佛是梅子味的匈牙利甜酒托卡伊(Tokaj)。Some lesser-known koshu, or aged sake, sells for more than $300 a bottle for a 40-year-old vintage. Shigeri Shiraki, whose family brewery in the mountainous region of Gifu was founded in 1835, is exploring how to make her 20-year-old aged sake, Daruma Masamune, palatable to Westerners. It is brewed manually by a handful of employees, and only in the winter, a practice among koshu brewers that dates to the 17th century. Mrs. Shiraki said her brewery does not use refrigerators.還有一些不那么出名的古酒，即陳年清酒。一瓶40年的古酒售價在300美元以上。白木繁里（Shigeri Shiraki，音）是岐阜市山區一座家族清酒廠的老板。這家酒廠創立于1835年。她正在探索如何讓自己釀造了20年的清酒——達摩正宗(Daruma Masamune)——適合西方人的口味。這種古酒是由幾名工人手工釀制的，而且只在冬天釀造，延續了17世紀釀造古酒時普遍采用的方法。白木說她的清酒廠不用冷庫。On its own, her sake has a salty undertone reminiscent of soy sauce or Marmite, and it shares notes with port, sherry or the smoky-flavored Islay Scotch whisky. Mrs. Shiraki suggested pairing it with a particularly rich dessert, pouring it over a slice of pecan pie and vanilla ice cream, or trying it as a digestive.白木繁里的清酒帶有一種咸味，能讓人聯想起醬油或馬麥醬，還有一絲波爾圖葡萄酒、雪利酒，或者煙熏味艾拉島威士忌(Islay Scotch)的口感。白木繁里建議搭配味道濃郁的甜品，在享用山核桃派和香草冰淇淋時倒上一杯，或者把它當成一種餐后酒。Some chefs and food lovers describe the experiment with sake as a shot in the dark, but for brewers, the challenge is more urgent.一些大廚和美食愛好者稱，用清酒所做的這種嘗試結果還很難說，但對于釀酒商來說，面前的挑戰越來越迫在眉睫。Sake consumption has fallen sharply in Japan since the 1970s because of a decreasing birthrate and a switch by many drinkers to wine, much of it imported, or other domestic drinks like beer, whiskey or shochu, a Japanese spirit. Japan exported 5,000 tons of sake in 2024, but mostly to Japanese restaurants, limiting its audience. Overseas sales are still a small fraction of total sales.自1970年代以來，清酒在日本的消耗量就大幅下降，一個原因是出生率的不斷下滑，此外許多飲酒者轉而飲用葡萄酒——很大一部分是進口的——或者國內生產的其他酒類，如啤酒、威士忌或烈性的燒酒。2024年，日本出口了5000噸清酒，但主要都流入了日式餐廳，這就限制了清酒的受眾。海外銷售仍然只占總銷量的很小部分。The number of brewers — mostly old-fashioned and family-owned — has shrunk to around 1,000 from around 4,600 in the earlier part of the 20th century.清酒廠的數量已經由上世紀上半葉的約4600家，減少至目前的1000家左右。大部分清酒廠都是傳統的家族式酒廠。“The sake industry won’t survive on its local market,” said Barry McCaughley, a food and beverage consultant based in London. “Unless it makes changes now, it will be dead in 20 to 30 years.”“清酒行業單靠本地市場根本無法生存，”倫敦的餐飲行業咨詢師巴里·麥可利(Barry McCaughley)說。“除非現在就做出改變，否則二三十年后清酒業就會消亡。”Restaurants and retailers are starting to push sake as the next drink fad, similar to craft beer, whose popularity has exploded in Britain. A Scottish brewer, Arran, plans to start producing Britain’s first sake on a commercial scale later this year, the second European brewer to do so after Nogne O of Norway. Many bars are already using sake in their cocktails.餐廳和零售商正開始把清酒包裝成新的時尚飲品，就像在英國人氣爆棚的手工釀制啤酒一樣。蘇格蘭的酒廠Arran計劃今年晚些時候，商業化生產英國的第一款國產清酒。它是繼挪威的納酷歐(Nogne O)之后，第二家采取這種做法的歐洲酒廠。許多酒吧已經開始使用清酒調制雞尾酒。For all the gambling on foreign sales, brewers say they have one ultimate aim: bringing sake back in Japan as well.除了進軍海外市場的賭博，釀酒商說，他們還有一個終極目標：讓清酒在日本重新流行起來。“If we’re able to tell the Japanese, ‘Look how much foreigners are enjoying sake,’ that would give them an opportunity to rediscover sake and revive demand,” Mr. Shichida said. “We don’t want our culture to disappear. We really don’t.”“如果我們能夠告訴日本人，‘看，外國人多喜愛清酒啊，’就會讓他們重新發現清酒的魅力，進而提振需求，”七田謙介說。“我們不想讓自己的文化消失。真的不想。”