Wine in a can

MoIppai — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 04:57:01 +0000

Fizzy Wine in a Can

There are some people who aren’t happy about screw cap closures.
There are some people who wouldn’t touch wine if it came out of a box.

So what about wine in a can??

Every now and then on the front page of the Daily Yomiuri here in Japan (an English language newspaper) there’s an advert for wine in a can. Surely a joke I thought? And surely only in Japan??

Well, yesterday I found some in a “foreign food” shop here in Japan, in the chiller cabinet next to the beers of all places.
(Japan tends to drink red wine straight from the fridge, even in some nice restaurants and bars). Admittedly in the ridiculously humid summers here, perhaps it’s not such a bad idea – when room temperature can be over 30deg C – however, I bought the can and left it overnight to warm up a bit.

First off, I was shocked to discover it’s actually from Australia and a company called Barokes.
Secondly, after checking out their website, it’s actually won loads of awards! After tasting it, I was even more shocked.

I’m afraid to say it was awful! I nearly threw it down the sink (I didn’t solely in the pursuit of journalism, of course, actually, I wanted to see if it would actually improve over time…it didn’t).

I should point out that I tried the Barokes Bubbly Wine – Cab Shiraz Merlot and at first I thought the Bubbly was just a marketing gimmick, but no, it really is a fizzy cab/shiraz/merlot!! Why??
To be fair to them, I don’t think I would like a fizzy shiraz if it came out of a gold plated bottle either, so maybe it wasn’t the whole “wine in a can” thing.
Especially seeing as their “still” red wines recently won the Gold Medal at the 2009 Berlin Wine Trophy, Germany. But even this sparkling has 5 awards! Obviously I know a hell of a lot less about good wine than I thought!

I will try their still wines in a a can and even their sparkling whites. Maybe I just started with the wrong one.

Following on from my can disaster I opened a Philippe Bourchard Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2006 which in vast contrast was absolutely sublime and I gave it a 9.5/10!
That’s probably my favourite Pinot Noir to date.

Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2006

My First Wine Tasting

MoIppai — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:07:20 +0000

Obviously, as I have made this site, I love drinking wine, and trying lots of different varietals, wineries and countries wines. But I’ve never been to an actual wine tasting before.

Well that all changed the other week. Our local off license has a wine tasting session on the first Sunday of each month, but we’ve always been too busy to go.

As I said, I’ve never been to a tasting before and imagined them to be very stuffy, formal events with lots of well dressed people, peering into glasses of wines, inhaling and sipping wine, nodding sagely and spitting into big buckets.
So we were a little apprehensive before we went. Thankfully this was nothing like that (although I’m sure those kind of events exist, like the tastings covered in Spectator magazine, etc.).

This was a much more relaxed, free for all, with not a spitoon in site.
We paid our ¥2000 (this is Japan, so about $20 I guess), and were presented with a list of 20 wines, starting with sparkling (including a fantastic champagne), rose, red and finishing with an unusual red sparkling wine.

The wines were all laid out on a table near the back of the shop, and we were given a glass and told to help ourselves.
Which we duly did.

Most of the wines were of the Pinot Noir variety, from France, South Africa, Australia, California and Italy.
It was the first time I’ve had the chance to compare the same varietal from different wineries, and countries so was fascinating.

I now have a much better grasp on what a Pinot Noir wine is, and “should” taste like (I think).

I ended up buying just one bottle, a Californian Pinot (will check the name later, it escapes me for now) (UPDATE: It was Cycles Gladiator from California, and scored 8.5), which if memory serves I scored about a 9.

Wine tastings are great fun, (well this one was – everyone there seemed to be a little drunk and quite noisy by the end of the time), and informative. I highly recommend seeking one out at a shop or bar near you.

Wine, Beer, Sake, Whiskey Blog at MoIppai » Pinot Noir

Wine in a can

My First Wine Tasting