When you raise a glass of champagne, sparkling wine or whatever fine bubbly at the end of the week, spare a thought for Masa Shiroki’s New Year plans.

I had the pleasure of meeting Artisan Sake Maker Masa Shiroki at the Taste festival this summer and was thoroughly impressed. So when I was invited to attend a sake pairing dinner in Victoria I couldn’t resist.

Masa Shiroki, owner and sake maker at Artisan SakeMaker on Granville Island is excited to announce that his experimental crop of sake rice (sakamai), planted on a small plot in Ashcroft in May this year, will be ready for harvest on or around September 20.

Last time the Hired Belly headed down Railspur Alley on Granville Island, sake maker Masa Shiroki had just bottled his first batch. Since then, the artisan sake maker has blossomed into a Canadian success story, with a string of feathers in his cap–including a Top 100 pick for Best Value in this year’s Vancouver Magazine Wine Awards for his richly textured Junmai Nama Genshu.