Grace Winery, Katsunuma, Japan
TweetGrace Winery is one of the larger, more well-known and perhaps even more prestigious Japanese wineries with some of their wines included in the JAL First Class Wine list, so it was one our list of wineries to check out while we were touring Katsunuma.
Grace Winery, Katsunuma
The tasting room is on the first floor of an old(ish), ivy covered building just opposite the Asaya Winery with a nice view overlooking Katsunuma and the Grace Vineyards.
Grace Vineyards
Of all the wineries we visited this was probably the largest tasting room with a bar covering one entire wall and it was also the busiest – although at the time we visited that only meant about 20 people.
They had some free wines to taste and you could also pay to try some of their higher quality wines (such as those on the JAL flights). I think this was the first winery we went to that charged in the tasting room, not that that was a bad thing, but just thought I’d mention it.
Grace Wine Tasting
We tried a few of their wines including their high end wines and ended up buying about 3 or 4 bottles (and like the Asaya Winery they arranged to ship them back for us).
To be honest, although their wines were some of the best we tried, I preferred the more informal, cosy atmosphere of some of the other wineries.
Or perhaps I was turned off by the barman snorting derisorily at me when I asked if they had any “freezing” or “ice wines”, as I’d just tried one from Soryu Winery and really liked it.
His voice told me that it was too hot in Yamanashi prefecture to make ice wine and his reaction told me I was an idiot to ask. Which, perhaps I was, but there is no reason to get all wine snobby about it.
Ice Wine (Eiswein) is a sweet wine made from ripe grapes picked frozen from the vine and pressed while still frozen, resulting in more sugar in the wine as a lot of the water crystals are left behind.
Usually made in Canada, as well as Austria and Luxembourg.
Can alse be made artificially by freezing the grapes after picking which is what they do in the Soryu Winery I guess.
Usually made in Canada, as well as Austria and Luxembourg.
Can alse be made artificially by freezing the grapes after picking which is what they do in the Soryu Winery I guess.
Grace Cuvee Misawa Wine
Any road up, it’s one to add to your itinery in Katsunuma if you’re visiting and you can pop over the road to Asaya Winery for a more cosy tasting afterwards.
I’ve reviewed one excellent Grace Wine here:
Cuvee Misawa 2006
Related posts on MoIppai
Tags: Grace Winery, Japanese Wineries, Katsunuma, Yamanashi Prefecture
Japan, Japanese Wineries, Wine Tasting, Wineries | by MoIppai
Vote:
Japan, Japanese Wineries, Wine Tasting, Wineries | by MoIppai
Vote:
[...] about 30 wineries scattered around the area, from large famous ones like Suntory, Chateau Mercian, Grace to much smaller and less well known wineries, for example Domaine Chateraise, Chateau Soryu, [...]
Pingback by Katsunuma wineries in Japan — May 30, 2010 @ 2:17 pm