We attended an artisan Sake Seminar led by connoisseur and author Toshio Ueno-who gave attendees an overview of this distinct alcoholic beverage-plus offered tasting notes of the select seven sakes- tasted. The event was held in the fabulous event/tasting room Astor Wines -399 Lafeyette Street, NYC the Master Sake Brewers lined up for a ceremonial bow before the seminar began. Very cool. sake pouring---and no-this was def not akin in any manner of speaking- to the usual house pour of hot sake we inhale at or local Japanese restaurant. We spent a 6 week vacation in Japan- back in the mid 90's when the post college-the budget was fairly minimal-so while we fell in love with Japanese tradition and culture (and hot springs!!)-the finer points on premium sakes eluded us. We could not get over the full sized vodka bottles being sold in all those vending machines! Well as one can see from the above snapshot-Japan shares the latitude of the other fine wine ...