Swashbuckling Sake Flights & Your New Favourite Fantasy Series
Judge Fair, Ride Fast, Fight Hard, Drink Nihonshu
Flights of Fantasy creates a tasting menu based on the personalities of different fantasy characters.
Sebastien De Castell’s The Greatcoats series is my favourite fantasy series and the three main characters Falcio Val Mond, Brasti Goodbow and Kest Murrowson are all incredible in their own way.
So, read on to discover more about why The Greatcoats will become your new favourite fantasy series and what would happen if all three of these idealistic idiots got together over a sake tasting.
Falcio Val Mond
The First Cantor of The Greatcoats has dedicated his life to bringing justice to his homeland of Tristia, so his choices of sake would be loud, indomitable and have an air of adventure.
Dassai 23
Falcio’s exploits are known across Tristia and his reputation as a duelist and magistrate have gone beyond his control. Falcio is capable of great courage, but he’s also reckless, arrogant, shortsighted and belligerent.
For better or worse, he’s one of the most famous men in the country and a lot of that has to do with deliberately throwing himself into impossible situations and talking too much when he should be fighting. In other words, he’s complicated.
Dassai 23 has a similarly complex reputation in the sake world. The Dassai brand is known across the world as a top-quality junmai daiginjo.
Dassai 23 is a stubbornly self-assured sake. It’s elegant, graceful and comes with a sumptuous 23% rice polishing rate. The perfect drink for a duelist who favours skill and wit in battle.
Suehiro Ken The Sword Daiginjo
Ever since he was a child, Falcio was determined to be a Greatcoat and he took up the sword to defend the land against injustice. His weapons of choice are dual rapiers and a suitable sake to reflect his love for elegant blades is Suehiro Ken Daiginjo.
Translating to ‘the sword’ in English, this daiginjo is produced by the Suehiro brewery located in Fukushima Prefecture. With a rice polishing rate of 40%, the nihonshu is as sharp as its namesake: peach, melon, banana and citrus zip across the tongue.
There’s also an underlying dryness that matches Falcio’s biting sense of humour and sarcasm.
Kokuryu Number 88
Luck has never been on Falcio’s side. He’s constantly pitted against overwhelming odds and evil doers who’re usually far smarter than he is, so he’s learned to use humour as a defence mechanism as much as a way to change the odds in his favour.
With that in mind, Falcio would likely choose an ironic sake like Kokuryu Number 88. In Japanese culture, the number 8 is considered lucky because the kanji symbol (八) looks as if it’s spreading out and seems auspicious. So, the number 88 is considered to be twice as lucky!
Falcio would pour himself a glass to toast how unlucky he was with his friends Brasti and Kest.
Brasti Goodbow
If there were ever a character who liked to discover new drinks and get thoroughly sloshed it’s Brasti Goodbow.
Irreverent, impulsive and supremely confident in his mastery of the bow, Brasti is the kind of guy who’d make an excellent drinking buddy. His sake flights are brash, masculine and have more to them than meets the eye.
Choya Futsushu
Unlike Falcio and Kest, Brasti is constantly overlooked and underestimated. Falcio and Kest’s exploits are well-known across the land of Tristia, while Brasti has felt the need to compensate by turning everything into a joke and basically coming across as an arrogant ass.
This parallels the relationship that futsushu sake has with premium sake grades like ginjo and daiginjo. Futsushu is ‘ordinary’ table sake, while ginjo and daiginjo is considered to be more expensive and prized for how it’s made. It could be argued that futsushu sake lives in the shadow of premium nihonshu, just like Brasti does with Kest and Falcio.
But there’s much more to Brasti than what’s on the surface and that is the same for Choya futsushu. Far more than being ordinary, Choya futushu has plenty going on. Bright, bold and smooth, it’s an excellent sake to drink warm or cold.
Taka Noble Arrow
Brasti is a man of simple pleasures who could reel off his five favourite things on one hand: women, alcohol, making fun of Falcio and Kest, poaching and archery. With the possible exceptions of the first and third activities, archery is Brasti’s biggest love and he’ll tell anyone who listens that the bow is superior to the sword.
So of course, he’d choose a sake that extols the virtues of archery with the Taka Noble Arrow. He’d definitely break out a bottle to celebrate taking down knights with one of his bows like Intemperance or Insult.
The Noble Arrow is a junmai tokubetsu (special) sake made from a blend of yamada nishiki and hattan nishiki rice that’s been milled to 60%.
Nanbu Aiyama
Brasti has always been the kind of person who beats to the sound of his own drum. In his own mind, he’s never fit the characteristics of what a typical Greatcoat is and never lost sight of his personal ideals.
The same can be said for the Nanbu Bijin brewery of Iwate, who’re focused on developing their own unique sake like Aiyama. The sake takes its name from the rice used to make it, which is a rare strain that’s hard to cultivate due to its tall height and large rice ears.
But the Nanbu brewery loves a challenge and has crafted a phenomenal junmai daiginjo with a 50% rice polishing rate.
The Aiyama has all the flavours a poacher like Brasti could want. Gamey, savoury qualities mingle with sweetness and underlying umami notes.
Kest Murrowson
Finally, we have the stoic and logical Kest Murrowson. His sake flights feature drinks with hidden depths.
Bushido Sake
Kest has spent his entire life training to be the greatest fighter in all of Tristia. At one point, he was the Saint of Swords, the purest embodiment of what a master swordsman can be and this life-long dedication to the blade has given him an appreciation for studying all kinds of fighting techniques.
Japanese bushido, The Way of The Warrior, is a discipline that Kest would undoubtably become fascinated with quoting at inappropriate times (much to the chagrin of Falcio and Brasti).
A sake to embody this fascination is Bushido Sake, a canned beverage with delicate notes of stonefruit, apple and lemon. Falling into the ginjo category, Bushido Sake has an ABV of 18%, indicating it’s undiluted (genshu).
It’s the kind of drink that’s loyal to representing the characteristics of ginjo sake, much as Kest is loyal to Falcio and Brasti.
Samurai Junmai
As part of his appreciation of bushido, Kest would certainly be interested in the nature of samurai and their fighting skills. He’d spend his time calculating the odds on beating the greatest Japanese warriors and working through the amount of sword exchanges it would take to defeat them in battle.
A bottle Kest would enjoy drinking is Godo Shusei’s Samurai junmai. This sake doesn’t feature any added alcohol, has a 60% rice polishing rate and is also undiluted. It comes with savoury notes of almond, rice and liquorice.
Raifuku Kijoshu
After enjoying the robustness of the Samurai junmai, Kest would opt for something sweet and a perfect choice is Raifuku ‘Mellow’ Kijoshu. This drink is interesting because it’s been made by replacing some of the water used to brew sake with more sake. This results in a beverage with sweet qualities and can be likened to a dessert wine.
With a silky, smooth texture the Mellow lives up to its name. Bottled at 15%, it tastes of marmalade, rice pudding and cream.