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Hojyo Wine

Hojyo Winery in Tottori prefecture (north west of Osaka, famous for the Tottori Sand Dunes) was established in 1944, so fairly young really but for Japan quite an old winery.

This wine is made from Muscat Bailey A, quite a common grape in Japanese wines, and not one I'm usually a fan of, but this wine was pretty good - mainly because it didn't taste much like a Muscat Bailey A wine!

It was warm, alcoholic on the nose with a dark earthy feel to it, with a dark brick, slightly earthy red colour.

On the palate it was a little bit sour, with an earthy herby feel and taste.

Medium bodied and dry, dry, dry to the bone. Some roughness on teeth too.

It has a medium finish.

To be honest it was a bit too earthy for my tastes, but for a Japanese wine it's pretty good, better than a lot I've tried, and as I said earlier it didn't have that distinctive, overpowering (for me) Muscat Bailey A taste. I scored it quite high, but I scored it in comparision to other Japanese wines, not old world wines.

They have a website at http://www.hojyowine.jp/ but it's Japanese only, unfortunately.

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