By Bruce Rutledge

When the Chanterelle restaurant closed in the autumn of 2009, many a New Yorker mourned the loss. It was "a sad day for New York," one customer told The New York Times. "We've lost another small piece of the best of NYC," wrote another. The French-inspired restaurant had been operating for nearly 30 years, but the bad economy finally forced owners Karen and David Waltuck to close the restaurant doors.

And as those doors shut, so did a chapter in the history of sake in the US. 

Chanterelle employed Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn, one of the foremost sake experts in the world. Dagorn is also a wine expert. In 2008, Dagorn was awarded the title of Sake Samurai by the Japanese Sake Brewers Association in a ceremony in Kyoto, making him one of 17 people in the world with that title. Dagorn played a pivotal part in the growth of sake in the US because of his legendary pairings at Chanterelle. 
Chanterelle would hold an annual sake dinner where Dagorn paired each of the 10 courses with a different sake. The dinners began in 1998. Dagorn would also hold sake salons, exposing the libation to hundreds of people over the years in the stylish setting of Chanterelle.

"I went to a tasting held by a new company in the US, Japan Prestige Sake Association, Dagorn told Ibuki. "They deal with high-end top sake producers in Japan. I had an idea that I could do something with the sakes at Chanterelle.

"We had some successful wine dinners, so I thought, Why not try a sake dinner? The first one was so successful that it continued for 11 years," he said.

These dinners helped sake achieve a newfound cool in the US. By taking it out of the Japanese restaurant, Dagorn gave the libation new life and showed that the premium brands could be paired with all sorts of Western dishes. 

"I do know that (Dagorn) cooperated with Japan Prestige Sake Association, and they had a lot to do with sake growing, as did he in his capacity," writes John Gauntner, a sake expert and author of several books about sake. "Surely he was the only one daring to use sake on a regular and comprehensive basis back then."

Gauntner himself has helped spread the gospel of good sake, training sake sommeliers and lecturing around the world about the complex brew.

But when sake appeared in cosmopolitan settings such as Chanterelle or Windows on the World at the top of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, where it used to be served with sushi, it was because of the efforts of the Japan Prestige Sake Association, which worked tirelessly to introduce premium sake to foreign audiences. The result of their work was to create a kind of reverse effect, making sake cool in Japan too. 

"When the status of sake was raised in America, we could use it for marketing back in Japan," says Mariko Yamazaki, executive director of the Japan Prestige Sake Association. If it was cool in the US, the thinking went, then maybe young Japanese would turn to sake themselves.

In Japan, sake has been competing fiercely with whiskey, wine, beer and other libations in a market where the Japanese brew used to dominate. While wine has a trendy, upscale image in Japan, sake has had to fight off a reputation of being the older generation's drink.  Events like the Chanterelle sake dinners, although half a world away from Japan, helped give sake a status boost.

As the taste for premium brands of sake has grown, brewers have been more willing to experiment with high-end products like sparkling sake or the yuzu-infused sake from Tsukasabotan. These innovations are recruiting people to the world of sake. The hardest thing, says Yamazaki, is to "get people to try sake for the first time."

But Dagorn sees promise for sake in the US. In his new role as sommelier at Porter House, a venerable New York steak house, he is seeing more and more people order sake. "Sake is quite popular at the bar," he says. "We serve eight different sake and the Sake Samurai Martini. And they are doing very well at the bar. I find myself reordering."

Master Sommelier Roger Dagorn is one of only 17 people in the world to hold the title of Sake Samurai. Photo by Lorie Rhodes.	John Gauntner is one of the foremost non-Japanese sake experts in the world.

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