"Gourmet News" No. 6: The Kisvin Wine Controversy

Japanese wine is booming at the moment. However, I have been devoting myself to French wine, especially Bordeaux wine, for a quarter century, and with the little time left in my life, I am devoting myself to trying the other big wine, Burgundy wine, even if only a little. I just can't get around to Japanese wine. However, by chance, I ended up searching for a certain Japanese wine. This is what happens when one coincidence after another happens, and I'm thinking that this might be fate, so I'll keep an eye on this wine. And that wine is from Kisvin Winery in Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture.

It all started when I saw the program "A Drop of Smile - Winemaker Mayu Saito" on NHK's "Professional Work Style" on April 20th . I have a weakness for female chefs and female winemakers. In the mid- 1990s , when I visited Paris for overseas research, I visited the restaurants of female chefs such as "Casa Olympe" by Dominique Versini, the first feminist in the culinary world to receive a star in Paris, and "Ledoyen" by Ghislaine Arabian, who received two stars at the time and was a hot topic. Now, I like wines made by female winemakers such as Fanny Sable of Beaune, who is also a Burgundy winemaker. In Beaune, a female winemaker named Tomoko Kuriyama makes a brand of wine called "Chantreive", and I had no idea that Saito was a Japanese winemaker until I saw the program. I hope this gives you an idea of ​​how much of an outsider I am to Japanese wine.

The wines of Kisvin Winery were depicted as the process of realizing the team's dream of making "world-class wine" by turning grapes carefully grown by the owner and grape farmer Yasuhiro Hagiwara and others into wine by Saito. The program introduced wines made using elaborate brewing methods, such as "Koshu", which is used in ANA 's first class, and "Syrah Rose", which is made by making three types of wine from one grape and blending them together. The last wine featured was "Zinfandel Rose". In fact, Zinfandel is not suitable for Japan's hot and humid climate, and if there is a lot of rain, the grapes become watery and the fruit splits, making it impossible to make wine. So they cut off all the Zinfandel grapes and replaced them with other grapes. And the last Zinfandel was not made by Saito, but by another young winemaker, Rei Kawakami. The ending shows all the staff smiling as they drink the wine made by Kawakami and move on to new challenges.

So, a while after watching the program, I was looking at my "People you may know" on Facebook and saw the name "Kawakami Rei." I thought I'd seen that name somewhere before, so I looked at his profile and saw that he was a winemaker at Kisvin Winery. Ah, I remembered that he was the one who made that last Zinfandel, so I sent him a friend request thinking that it was fate, and he immediately accepted. He's still young at 23 years old. I'm the type of person who wants to support women and young people, so I immediately looked at Kawakami's Facebook . At the beginning of the post was a tweet about the program written by someone who seemed to be his aunt, which said, "It looks like you can still buy Rei's Zinfandel...try negotiating." So I immediately contacted him via messenger and asked if he had any Zinfandel, but he told me that the winery had no more stock, and told me a store on the winery's website that sold it.

If you think about it, this wine has been featured on TV amid the Japanese wine boom, and is being touted as the last Zinfandel. Moreover, the winery itself is literally a garage winery, producing wine in a space the size of a garage in a residential area, so it is obvious that the number of bottles produced is small. Still, being unfamiliar with Japanese wine, I decided to check the websites of stores that sell it. In Chiba Prefecture, where I live, there was a store called "Imadeya", but not only was Zinfandel sold out, all of Kisvin 's wines were sold out. The same goes for "Takamura Wine House", where I go to Osaka to drink wine. Pinot Noir, which costs 16,000 yen, was also out of stock. This is a big problem. Actually, there were quite a few stores that didn't have Zinfandel on their list, and just when I was about to give up, I found "Kotobuki Sake Shop" in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, listed as a store. I immediately looked at the store's website and saw an article with a photo saying "Rose has arrived". There was also Zinfandel in it. However, it seems that they don't do mail order.

However, by coincidence, W, who I taught wine to and who qualified as a wine expert when he was a student, is from Joetsu. W is currently working at NTT in Tokyo, but it was Golden Week. W is an only child and his father is a local celebrity, so I thought he might have returned to Joetsu, and when I contacted him, he was indeed in Joetsu. I asked him to run an errand for me at Kotobuki Liquor Store, and he was able to buy it just in time. What a stroke of luck! When I told Kawakami that I had managed to buy it, he was surprised. The owner of Kotobuki Liquor Store must be a fan of Kisvin wine. He advised W not to chill it too much, but to keep it at a slightly higher temperature. He said that the taste changes on the second and third days, so it would be good to try it.

Through a series of coincidences, I was able to get my hands on "The Last Zinfandel". I plan to hold a proper tasting event with W- kun, who is a certified expert. Kawakami-kun also told me to try Kisvin 's basic "Koshu", so I was able to purchase it through ANA 's mail order service, which he told me about. This was also fate. I will definitely get my hands on and taste all the wines Kawakami-kun makes. Of course, I would also like to keep an eye on Kisvin 's wines in general.

This month's recommended wine: "Traditional Chianti Classico made by a former female chef"

"Chianti Classico Riserva 2015 Fattoria di Petroio" 5,500 yen (excluding tax)

While the two great French red wines are Burgundy and Bordeaux, Italy also has two great red wine producing regions: Piedmont and Tuscany. Last time, I introduced Bordeaux, so this time I will introduce wines from the Tuscany region, which is the Italian equivalent of Bordeaux. The characteristic of Tuscan wine is that it is made from grapes called Sangiovese. Brunello di Montalcino, the pinnacle of Tuscan wine, is made from grapes called Brunello, which is a subspecies of Sangiovese. And the wine made from this original Sangiovese is "Chianti". It is difficult to choose a Chianti wine, with a wide range of prices, but wines with the name "Classico" are currently made in the core area of ​​Chianti since the 13th century. Furthermore, while the legal aging period for regular Chianti is one year, "Riserva" is two years, so you can enjoy a higher grade Chianti. The producer is Diana Lenci, the daughter of the owner, whose father is a famous neurologist and has no time to be involved in winemaking, so she quit her job as a chef and runs the winery instead. I chose this winery because of the female winemakers featured in this series. In Tuscany, where Bordeaux-style Super Tuscans are in fashion, their determination to convey the current form of Sangiovese while respecting tradition is a true pride of the region.

For inquiries about the wines featured,
To AVICO Co., Ltd.

Biography
Osamu Seki Born in Tokyo in 1961. Currently a part-time lecturer at Meiji University and other institutions.
He specializes in contemporary French thought and cultural theory, and is a director of the Reefer Wine Association.
His books include "An Introduction to Beautiful Men" (Natsume Shobo) and "My Neighbor is Arashi-kun" (Cyzo), and his translations include "How Should We Read Foucault?" by Oksara (Shinsensha) and "Mr. Pydrow, What Use Is a Gastronomic Critic?" by Pydrowski (Shinsensha).
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