Wine with sushi

[Jason]

Roger that. I am a firm believer in keeping things simple. Putting Western wines with Eastern foods is never an easy task, because it was not meant to be. To reverse it, would you put sake with rack of lamb?
Certainly there are guys like Randy Cap who do the East/West thing for a living, but this is fusion cuisine, and sushi is a whole other ballgame.
You pay big bucks for sushi for one thing - purity (and cleanliness) of flavor. This is the ultimate "less is more" food.
If someone had to put wine with, it I'd say something very bland (Muscadet, Ugni Blanc) buts lets face it, millions of Japanese can't be wrong.
Sake and beer work so well because both are light and clean and do nothing more than cleanse the oils from your pallete, allowing you to start fresh.
By the way, not all beers work. The Japanese beers are best at this as well. Don't waste your sushi by drinking Sam Adams Ale, it will kill any delicacy in the fish.
Sake is a beast unto its own, but because it is brewed, and grain based, it would be heresy on this board. Suffice it to say that the draft sakes (served cold) are unpasteurised and are very good. Good stuff is always cold. They heat the cheap stuff to mask problems. I have seen the high end stuff usually served room temp.
Hakusan makes a little 250 ml bottle of draft sake called "Mild" and even comes to the table in little ice buckets. This is a Japanese owned property in Napa that even grows their own rice. Good stuff, I know several sushi chefs who drink it regularly.