In my efforts to write up something from the tastings I have attended as a novice sake connoisseur , I found it is extremely hard to find a good online sake glossary (日本酒用語) in English. Most of terms are standard, but some are just used by certain kura.

For example, there are different terms to describe the beginning, middle, and end of the sake pressing when bottling. Usually, the sake you get a a given bottle contains a mixture of sake pressed from the bottom, middle and top parts of the liquid in the fermentation tank. Some kura do separate pressings for each level of the tank without mixing. The sake in the middle of the tank is supposed to be better quality without the impurities from both ends mixed in. The terms I know used to describe this high-grade separation are: nakatori (中取り), nakakumi (中汲み), or nakatare (中垂れ). There is no industry standard to describe this.

So, this listing is not perfect, but here are some sites I check for reference. I keep all these sites bookmarked under sake on del.icio.us as well.

• Sake World by John Gauntner
• Glossary of Terms on Sake Bottle Labelsby National Research Institute of Brewing (382 kb PDF download).
• esake.com by John Gauntner
• Dewazakura
  Glossary Page
• Joto Sake

Other sites that may be useful are