People often say Sake is a type of Japanese rice wine, but we're kind of adamant on saying that sake is sake. Why?

By definition, wine is an alcohol that is fermented from the sugar of a fruit, so there's no wine without fruit. Sake, on the other hand, breaks down ice using a two-step fermentation process: The rice starch is converted to sugar, and then that sugar is converted to alcohol by yeast. Which actually makes sake production more similar to beer. And yet, sake production is still completely unique and one-of-a-kind in the world of alcoholic beverages, and therefore we think it deserves its own category.