{"id":353,"date":"2025-06-13T00:06:20","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T00:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/australiansakeawards.org.au\/en\/?p=353"},"modified":"2025-06-13T03:37:51","modified_gmt":"2025-06-13T03:37:51","slug":"the-2025-judging-is-complete-winning-sake-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/australiansakeawards.org.au\/en\/news\/353\/","title":{"rendered":"The 2025 Judging Is Complete \u2013 Winning Sake Announced<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The 4th annual Australian Sake Awards were held in Sydney on the weekend of 17th & 18th May, 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year saw many changes, including a new venue. After holding the Australian Sake Awards at the iconic Customs House for the past 2 years, the event was held this year at Wentworth Park Sporting Complex, in Ultimo, the Sydney suburb known as a major hub for education, technology and media. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, this year saw some changes within the categories and judging system, following the format of last year\u2019s two day competition which saw day 2 focus on the food pairing component. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The panel of judges for this year once again included many industry professionals and was made up of Australian sommeliers, sake retailers, food and beverage industry professionals, sake qualification holders, and sake importers and wholesalers. The competition saw many return judges from previous years, and also welcomed an influx of first time ASA judges with great industry experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We were honoured to have with us again, for the third year running, Mr. Ken Oda, our International Guest Judge, from the National Research Institute of Brewing in Japan. Sadly, this was Mr. Oda\u2019s last year joining the panel of judges at the Australian Sake Awards. Next year, we will be joined by Mr. Kanai, a colleague of Mr. Oda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Oda\u2019s expertise has been a wonderful addition to the awards, including his valuable input and guidance during the pre-judging online lectures and presentations, where he provided the panel with a wealth of information. He has certainly played the role of mentor to our head judging committee and we are all very grateful to him for all he has contributed over the past 3 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, over 180 sakes were entered in the Australian Sake Awards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the sakes tasted were submitted from breweries throughout Japan, or via their distributors in Australia, who had sent in their application to enter the competition earlier this year. We were thrilled to see the number of entrants this year and the variety of sake was most encouraging. We\u2019d love to see more breweries enter their sake in 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Judges were once again sat in groups of 6 or 7, at round tables, allowing for easy discussion amongst each group, which served well in light of some of the changes made since last year\u2019s awards, as well as welcoming some of our first time judges, and also during the food pairing assessment. This interactive and immersive style of judging, put in place in 2023, has proved popular amongst the judges and continues to help create a strong sense of community amongst the 60+ judging panel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year’s categories were as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n