Sake World - John Gaunter

Sake World
This site is devoted to Japanese sake, and has been created, written and is updated by John Gauntner, widely recognized as a leading non-Japanese authority on sake. John has written four books and literally hundreds of articles on all things sake, and is known as 'The Great Communicator' within the sake world for his uniquely concise way of conveying all aspects of sake, sake enjoyment, and sake culture, history and brewing technology. Among other educational efforts, he currently publishes the free monthly Sake World email newsletter.

Events
http://www.sake-world.com/html/events-seminars.html

John Gauntner is recognized as the leading non-Japanese sake expert in the world. Originally hailing from Ohio, he worked in his original vocation as an electrical engineer in Japan before fate pulled him, although hardly kicking and screaming, into the sake world.

A longtime Japan resident, he both speaks and reads Japanese, and is well known among sake brewers and others within the sake industry as the window to making sake popular outside of Japan. He wrote the Nihonshu Column in the Japan Times (Japan's most widely read English language newspaper) for eight straight years. He now writes a weekly column on sake in Japanese for Japan's (and, in fact, the world's) most widely distributed Japanese newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun, as well as monthly for Tokyo Metropolis magazine, and has published four books on the subject. (His most recent book, 'Nihonjin mo Shirenai Nihonshu no Hanashi' or 'Things about sake that even Japanese people do not know,' has just been published in Japanese by Shogakkan, and is available at bookstores everywhere.)

Known as 'The Sake Guy,' John has been quoted and/or mentioned in sake related articles in countless publications including The New York Times, Newsweek, Forbes, Business Week, and Rolling Stone. He has spoken at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia Universities, Wharton School of Business, and countless other venues across the US and Japan.

He is the only non-Japanese member of the Ginjoshu Kenkyu Kikou (Ginjo Sake Research Group), and is the only non-Japanese to have participated as an official taster in a prefectural government tasting, as well as the only non-Japanese to provide regular sake-related consulting assistance in the form of lectures to the Government of Japan. He is also the only non-Japanese to have won the 'Kikizake Meijin' (Accomplished Sake Taster) award, presented by the Junsui Nihonshu Kyoukai (Pure Sake Association) for accuracy in sake tasting skills, an award he has won twice, in March of 2001, and again in March of 2003.

John also holds monthly seminars in Tokyo in English for the expat community, or those just passing through. Each winter, he runs the Sake Professional Course, a week-long intensive sake study course, held in a sake brewery. Most of each winter traveling around Japan, visiting breweries regularly and constantly learning.

Other efforts at educating and edifying about sake include a free monthly sake newsletter and an extremely comprehensive and well-designed website.

John is available for seminars on sake, as well as consulting on sake-related projects. Interested parties please contact John directly.