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

Wine Tasting at Rive Gauche, Ashiya, Japan

MoIppai — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 06:35:06 +0000

Every first Sunday of the month our local off-license, Rive Gauche, has an informal wine tasting. We’ve been going there for a few months now, and finally got around to writing about it.

Basically you pay about ￥2000-3000 ($20-30) depending on the wine selection, and get to taste around 20 wines, usually starting with a few sparkling or champagne, then whites and finally reds. Although some times it’s all white or all reds.

Rive Gauche Ashiya

It’s pretty informal in that you take a glass and basically just work your way along the table helping yourself to the wine.

It starts off pretty quiet and polite to begin with but after an hour or so the drink takes effect and the noise level rises and people start to really enjoy themselves.
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Read the rest of Wine Tasting at Rive Gauche, Ashiya, Japan (156 words)

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Post tags: Wine Tasting

My Wine Tastes of Bugs!

MoIppai — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 08:10:35 +0000

A while ago I bought a book (or rather a Mook – a magazine/book) about wine here in Japan, called the “Basic Wine Book” – ワイン基本ブック which is, as the title suggests a beginners guide to wine. And pretty useful it is too.

It has sections on the major wine regions in the world, and discussions about the main grapes.
It also has a very useful photo section with images of all the different tastes you might find in a particular varietal wine…here is the Shiraz/Syrah page…

Shiraz - Bug

Two things crossed my mind at this point…
a) Shiraz might smell/taste like bugs?? um, no thanks.
b) How does anyone know what a bug smells/tastes like??

In answer to the second one, apparently a lot of Japanese people do.
These kind of bugs are common here and it’s not unusual for young boys to collect them…nice.

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Chanmoris Winery, Katsunuma Japan

MoIppai — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:21:54 +0000

The next winery on our tour of Katsunuma wineries in Japan was directly across the road from Domaine Chateraise, the Chanmoris Winery owned by the rather long named company Koshu Budou ShuHonPo.
Not sure what that translates as but Koshu Budou = Koshu Grapes, which are the only native grapes to Japan, and make up a lot of Japanese wines.

Chanmoris Winery, Japan

It was out of season to visit wineries (mid August), at least so it seemed as the place was deserted and we were the only visitors (there was a couple of other people in the tasting room but they were just leaving as we arrived).

First we had a wander around the short tour of the winery buildings, which meant you basically walked past some windows into the rooms where the machinery was all laying unused.
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Read the rest of Chanmoris Winery, Katsunuma Japan (273 words)

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Post tags: Chanmoris Winery, Japanese Wine, Katsunuma, Wine Tasting, Wineries, Yamanashi

Domaine Chateraise Winery in Katsunuma Japan

MoIppai — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 05:39:16 +0000

Previous Katsunuma Post

Domaine Chateraise in Katsunuma, Japan

The great thing about Katsunuma (one of the main winery areas in Japan) is it’s size. Pretty much each winery and vineyard is in walking distance.
Our “minshoku” (called Tembouen and highly recommended if you stay in Katsunuma) which is like a Japanese B&B seemed to be pretty much in the centre and was within 10 minutes walking distance of 4 wineyards including one of the largest and most famous, Mercian.

However we started with a little winery, called Domaine Chateraise that was literally next to our B&B.

It had a very small tasting room/shop and was empty when we went. Despite it being a national holiday and crowds were expected I guess they weren’t in the mood for wine tasting that day.
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Read the rest of Domaine Chateraise Winery in Katsunuma Japan (356 words)

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Post tags: Domaine Chateraise, Japan, Japanese Wine, Katsunuma, Wine Reviews, Wine Tasting, Wineries, Yamanashi

Wine Tasting Etiquette – Fry and Laurie Style

MoIppai — Wed, 27 May 2009 04:16:47 +0000

Found this on YouTube the other day, marvellous. And for the Americans watching, that’s Dr House by the way.

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