HEAVENSAKE Blue – Junmai Ginjo

The gentler of Régis Camus’s two assemblages. Label Azur is brewed with Dewazakura in Yamagata, a house founded in 1892 and fed by meltwater off the mountains above it. The rice is milled to 50 per cent, the ginjo standard, which leaves a little more of the grain’s character in the glass than the daiginjo bottling does.

Green apple and fresh mint on the nose, clean and spring-like. The palate follows with pear, apple and grape, drier than the aroma suggests and held together by moderate acidity. The finish is silky, with the mint returning right at the end.

A fresh, easy ginjo that works as well before dinner as with it. Serve chilled, 7 to 10 degrees, in a wine glass.