And characters they are indeed! We’re giving ourselves one more “warm-up run” before we really dig in, so we thought it only made sense to round the team up at the bar and pass the tokkuri as we reminisce and share, “How did I get here?” stories. Plus, we wanted our listeners to get to know exactly who it is that will be guiding them on these twice-a-month journeys into the depths of the sake and shochu world – never to return!

This week John Gauntner, Sebastien Lemoine, Christopher Hughes, Christopher Pellegrini, Shuso Imada and Justin Potts are all here playing musical chairs. For sake and shochu aficionados, these may be old friends, or possibly new faces (voices?). While we’re all here with the same goal in mind, we have rather different backgrounds and inspirations that have led us to where we are today, and as a result, equally unique approaches and perspective.

This week’s episode serves as more of an introduction of sorts, but over the coming weeks and months we think you’ll find that the team’s varied experiences and interpretations on how the world of sake is expressing itself might inspire as many new questions as answers.

We want to empower our listeners, not only with the information to help you all make the most out of your own sake and shochu experiences, but to also provide context and stories for how the industry got here, where it might be going, and empower everyone to find their own unique connection to the world of sake. As with just about anything, there are different opinions, styles, values and schools of thought. We hope that by trying to inspire a more diverse and varied dialogue around sake, we can inspire more people to engage with the infinitely deep and fascinating (not to mention, just really, really delicious!) world of sake.

So this week, just kick back with your ochoko in-hand and a bottle of hiyaoroshi by your side (it’s autumn!) and get to know your navigators. This is just the beginning.

As always, please send questions, feedback and show ideas to:
[email protected]

@sakeonair is where you can find us on ,  and . You can also find us on  and YouTube very soon.