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

Kurate Wine – A New Japanese Wine Style

MoIppai — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 04:56:49 +0000

Kurate Wine from Japan

Way back at the beginning of the year, February I think, I visited the Osaka Gift Show for my job (nothing to do with wine unfortunately). The Gift Show is a trade exhibition for various gadgets, crafts, gifts and other “novelty” items.

Amongst all the usb drives, personalised pen printing machines and hand made leather goods was a little booth promoting Kurate Wine and relishes.

Kurate Wine is a small company in Northern Kyushu (the western island of Japan) that grow the Kyoho Budou (Great Mountain Grapes), which is a popular grape variety in Japan, Taiwan and Korea, and is also grown in California and Chile, and they make wine from it.

This wine is kind of unusual in it’s supposed health benefits.

The grapes in the wine are actually called Wakazumi Kyoho, and Wakazumi in Japanese means “picked young”. So basically by picking the grapes early the wine ends up with 3 times the prophenol than if picked at the normal time. This prophenol apparently is good for the skin.
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Post tags: Japanese Wine, Kurate Wine

Japanese Koshu Wines Debut in Europe

MoIppai — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 01:59:31 +0000

Koshu Wine from Japan

Previously I wrote a post about a group of wineries from Yamanashi prefecture travelling to the UK to promote Koshu Wines there, and also about my visits to Katsunuma (in Yamanashi prefecture), and some of the wineries there including Grace Winery.

Well, I’ve just read in the paper this morning that Koshu, as a wine variety, was registered with the International Organization of Vine and Wine this March. This is a requirement for the wine to be sold in Europe, and has opened the door to Japanese wineries to export Koshu wines to the “Old World”.

Initially Grace Wines have sent 2000 bottles of Grace Koshu Kayagatake and Grace Koshu Private Reserve to Britain, and plans are afoot for the Yamanashi Prefecture Wine Manufacturers Association to send 10,000 bottles (from five different wineries) this financial year.

I haven’t tried any Koshu wines from Grace Winery, but I have tried a few from other wineries in the area and, as with all wine varieties, there are good and bad, my favourite was the Adega D’Aruga Bosque 2006 from Katsunuma Winery.

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The Hill of Grapes, Katsunuma (ぶどうの丘）

MoIppai — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 03:40:44 +0000

On a hill overlooking Katsunuma is an onsen (spa) and wine tasting tourist centre called
Budou no oka – ぶどうの丘 or The Hill of Grapes in English, which we visited on our last day before heading home, and in hindsight perhaps it would have been better to go there first.

The View from the Hill of Grapes

We skipped the onsen, and after a quick lunch (and a local beer, the Katsunuma Kai Draft) to line the stomach we headed down to the tasting area in the cellar.
You pay about ￥1100 ($11) and as well as free reign in the cellar you also get a “tastevin” which is a small, silver saucer you wear round your neck to taste wines with, and which you can take home as a souvenir.
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Post tags: Japanese Wine, Japanese Wineries, Katsunuma, Yamanashi Prefecture

Katsunuma Winery, Yamanashi, Japan

MoIppai — Sun, 04 Jul 2010 05:17:00 +0000

The last winery we visited in Katsunuma was the luckily named Katsunuma Winery.

Katsunuma Winery

I wonder if they opened their doors first or if there was a lottery to decide who could call their winery in Katsunuma City, Katsunuma Winery?
The same goes for Yamanashi Winery in Yamanashi Pefecture (the area where Katsunuma is situated).

Anyway, this winery is down a long, peaceful little residential road and appears on your left in a fairly non-descript building amongst the houses and other buildings.
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Yamanashi Winery, Katsunuma Japan

MoIppai — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 12:02:44 +0000

One of the last wineries we visited in Katsunuma was the small buy very friendly
Yamanshi Winery.

There are several reasons I would recommend seeking out this winery, the first being the marvellous old building the reception and tasting room is housed in and the very impressive tree growing outside it.

Yamanashi Winery

Japanese Tree

Inside is a small tasting area and attached to this is another small room containing old artifacts and objects related to wine and wine making.

The guy in charge on the day took us to the next building and showed us around their small but impressively old cellar.

Yamanashi Winery Cellar

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Post tags: Japanese Wine, Japanese Wineries, Katsunuma, Yamanashi Prefecture, Yamanashi Winery