From the bottle at KYOU, Sapporo, Japan. Pours transparent white. Aroma is delicate, a little of anise and almond. Body is average. Taste is limited sweet, a bit of bitterness and sourness. Finish is fairly long.

Bottle on Sunday night to brace myself for week. Pours slightly tinged clear. Nice nose of cedar and pear. Tastes of pears, light melon, vanilla, almonds, and cedar. Cedar doesn’t dominate but adds nice spicy quality to mix. Alcohol is very hidden could chug this if need be. Lovely.

750mL bottle shared at Fugakyu in Boston on 6/22/07
Waviness can be seen in this otherwise transparent, butter-tinged white sake. Large, longstanding legs left down the glass.
Strong, robust nose is yet quite nutty and tannic (neutral, musty wood notes) with very minimal fruitiness and mostly a meaty/earthy/damp aroma. Not easy to characterize, but it’s not that lighter, heady, perfuminess that you get in some ginjos and the like. Almonds/almondskin would be a good match, or even almond liquor mixed with light spices at best. Strong, endearing aroma really warms up the nasal cavity. Very well-used casks obviously, as this is not your typical fresh, spicy cedar.
Really round and chewy in the mouth, with a strong substance to it, the tannins no doubt seeing to that. Bits of vanilla and almond past mingle together, while pearskins and mild citrus tones round out the complexity. Severely drinkable, for me at least. Probably mostly due to the barrel tannins blocking any sharpness or rice pungency. I like that alot. Definitely warming on the finish, but as Walt says, it’s relatively well-hidden.