Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai » Manga

Japanese Koshu Wine Promoted In UK

MoIppai — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:42:15 +0000

I read today that the Yamanashi governor Shomei Yokouchi and a group of winery owners from Yamanashi Prefecture are currently promoting their Japanese Koshu white wines in Europe, starting off in London.

This reminded me of when my wife and I visited L’Orient Winery in Katsunuma, (the main city in Yamanashi prefecture) last summer and met Mr Takao Uchida the president of Shirayuri Winery Company. He told us about their plans for promoting the Katsunuma wine in the UK.

Takao Uchidasan President of Shirayuri Winery (and us)

A really friendly guy who gave us a tour of his vineyards and let us try the grapes off the vine!
He’s also appeared in a Japanese manga about food and wine,
called “Oishinbo” (美味しんぼ）　- it’s not often you get to meet a comic character in real life!
(Issue 80 if anyone’s interested – a special on Katsunuma wines and wineries).

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Read the rest of Japanese Koshu Wine Promoted In UK (212 words)

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Post tags: Domaine Chateraise, Japanese Wine, Japanese Wineries, Katsunuma, Manga, Shirayuri Winery, Wineries

Beaujolais Nouveau 2009 in Japan

MoIppai — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 06:13:35 +0000

Due to the time differences Japan gets each years fresh batch of Beaujoulais Nouveau before any other country in the world. And so, beaujolais nouveau is a big thing here with people rushing to get the first bottles the day and even night, that they arrive.

Beaujoulais Nouveau in Japan from the Convenience Store

I saw in the local convenience store that pamphlets have already appeared for pre-booking your bottle so you get it onh the 18th November before anyone else.

You also get ￥300 off!

There was also an advert in the paper this morning, a hotel is holding a wine tasting on the night of the 17th for ￥8000 ($80) you get to taste 5 different Beaujolais Nouveau’s from 11pm-1am.

I think I’ll wait and pick one up whenever though.

Edit (7th Nov 09): I was just reading in Oishinbo: Sake: A la Carte (a Japanese manga by Tetsu Kariya, primarily about food but recently an English language compilation of the sake/wine stories has been released – highly recommended if you want to learn more about sake and Japanese wineries), about how the rush to be the first to try Beaujolais Nouveau came about.

According to the manga, it was originally a local wine drunk at festivals to celebrate the harvest. However in the mid 1960s the British began a race to see who could bring the Beaujolais Nouveau back to London first after the release date.
This fad then grew worldwide.

You learn something new every day.

Kami no Shizuku – The Drops of the Gods

MoIppai — Fri, 29 May 2009 04:26:18 +0000

I’m embarrassed to say this is the first time I’ve heard of this Japanese manga related to wine.
Embarassed because

I like manga
I like wine
I live in Japan

doh!

According to Dale Cruse’s Blog Drinks Are On Me this is a hugely influential manga when it comes to wine purchases by Japanese people. Sales jump whenever a specific wine gets mentioned in the pages of the manga apparently read by over half a million Japanese a week!

Check out the link above to Dale’s blog for more info, and also he’s translated them into English!
As can be seen on Flickr at http://www.flickr.com/photos/djcruse/sets/72157618804754379/show/

I’m still struggling through “Sommelier” by Joh Araki (I should say that I’m only struggling through it as it’s in Japanese, not because it’s boring!)

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