Japan's Original KOSHU

Last March, I received e-mail from my former boss Roger, whom I had not been in contact for quite sometime. With a curiosity, I opened the message.

"I thought you might enjoy this article.

Happy Spring! Roger"

The article attached was Jancis Robinson's Purple Page, titled "Koshu gets a passport", which was about wines made from Japan's original Koshu grape getting ready to hit an international market.

Despite I knew Japan was making wines from grape, I was not aware of its quality nor status. I mean to a point to be written by one of the world's most famous wine authorities and wines good and competitive enough to be exported to overseas?

Reading the article over and over, I knew I had to go to Japan and see and taste these Koshu wines in person. However Japan is on the other side of the planet with 12-14 hour flight, which does not usually come with a reasonable price tag. In order to get approval from the people around me, I had to find other excuses to pursue my mission and also learn more about Koshu.

With over 1,300 years in history, Koshu is a Japan's original Vitis Vinifera white grape variety with thick pink skin. Its origin is the Caucasus and traveled via the Silk Road with Buddhism and it made its home in Yamanashi, where more than 95% of Koshu is cultivated.

Located at the foot of Mt. Fuji, Yamanashi is a mountainous area with well-drained volcanic soils. Extremes of heat and cold, plus long day's summer sunlight make this region ideal for cultivation of Koshu as well as other fruits (notably peach).

The vines were initially planted for producing table grape and overhead pergolas has been the traditional training method, however many growers are now experimenting with vertical shoot training to produce grape more suitable for wine making. Due to the region's 800 mm average annual rain, each grape bunch is covered by rain protective parchment paper, labor intensive work done by hand.

In terms of vinification, several methods are used:

- Stainless steel fermentation

- Stainless steel fermentation + sur lie

- Stainless steel/ barrel fermentation + barrel ageing

* Besides still dry white wine, Koshu is also made into semi-sweet and sparkling styles

Perfect opportunity came along in the early summer. I got a position to work for Japan Wine Challenge for 5 days. I booked a ticket, packed my bag and took off. Once the competition was over, 1 & 1/2 hour fast train ride took me to Yamanashi in a very hot day. My Koshu Expert picked me up at the station and then she guided me to an area called Toriibira, a hillside area known to produce some of the best Koshu grape. With a picturesque view of Yamanashi and vineyard in the background, she explained Koshu's history, viticulture, vinification, and current production overview. 

Gold medal winner for Japanese Wine category for 2010 Japan Wine Challenge was Haramo Wine, which was our first stop. Established in 1924, traditional Japanese architecture of the property is more than 130 years old. "Hara" loosely translates to "field" and that was the area around where the winery stands, thus the name of the property. Today Haramo Wine is run by father and son team of Furuya family and the day we visited, the son, Shintaro welcomed us in the tasting room. 

What makes Haramo Koshu truly unique is its strength. In general, wine's strength is often associated with alcohol, tannin, intensity and concentration of flavor, and/or degree of oak usage. Haramo Koshu is only 12% in alcohol and it is pale in color with lemon tint. Its strength is very different from "up in your face" kind but more of tenacity, which comes within as a form of persistence and complexity. I also enjoyed its "Jekyll & Hyde" like personality featuring famine side with delicate nuances of fruit and elegant floral quality and its powerful masculinity showing smokiness, white pepper-like spiciness, and structure.

Second place we visited was Yamanashi Wine, another historical property run by 4th generation winemaker of Mr. Nozawa. Young and talented Mr. Nozawa decided to continue his family business of wine making after living in France, where he fell in love with wine. Trained in Burgundy, he employs some of biodynamic viticulture practices though it is not always easy to execute in Japan's humid climate. "Natural" is the approach here at Yamanashi Wine and he even vinifies Koshu with all natural yeast and the wine is called "Sol Oriens" meaning sunrise. It has a distinctive character with poached pear and apple fruit, followed by hints of yuzu (Japanese lime), honey, and floral note.

What impressed me was his skillful usage of oak in the "Four Seasons", another Koshu which won a silver medal from International Wine Challenge. After slow temperature controlled fermentation, the wine is blended with a portion, which spends time in oak barrel. I did not taste much oak on the palate but instead there was touch of toasty notes, depth and structure from the barrel. These quality were beautifully integrated with fresh citrus fruit and apple flavors of Koshu.

About 10 minutes car ride brought us to Fujiclaire Winery, owned by a well-known food product company in Japan. This company learned a lot about food from the history and they applied the same approach to the wine making - to look at the history. The winemaker Mr. Amamiya greeted us in a sunny tasting room overlooking the vineyard. Sitting across the table, I could feel his passion for wine and his job making wine. This was confirmed by his meticulously organized notebook recording grape's sugar level from different vineyard sites.

Limited 3,500 bottle annual production Fujiclaire Koshu Sur Lie is made from free-run juice fermented in low temperature. Just like Mr. Amamiya's personality, this wine is soft and gentle with fruit of citrus and stone fruit of pear and peach, which comes with a smell of sea breeze like brininess. I was thinking it would be wonderful to pair with seafood dishes as well as with hard-to-pair seaweed. Also because of its forward fruit quality and weight, I think it will be delicious with Japanese fried dish of tempura, especially shrimp.

The last stop in Yamanashi was Grace Winery. One of the reasons why I really wanted to visit there was that it was the winery mentioned over and over while I was researching Koshu. Born in the very heart of Koshu production Kastunuma, President Misawa is the 4th generation of Grace Winery and his dream is to see Koshu recognized for its quality in the world. Sharing his dream alongside is his young and bright daughter/winemaker Ayana, who has trained at the University of Bordeaux, wine making school often referred as the Harvard in the industry.

Multiple-award winning Grace Koshu is their flagship wine. Made in "sur lie" style, the wine spends 5 months with lees, or yeast sediment. This process is known to add extra dimension, texture and flavor to the final product. Delicate yet complex Grace Koshu showed citrus fruit, mineral quality, balanced by clean acidity. There is amazing purity expressed on the palate as flavor but also as texture.

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After visiting these four producers talking and tasting, I began to see a picture of Koshu. I've noticed there are three attributes making Koshu stands out and these are:
 
1: Koshu benefits from airtime
When you just pull a cork, Koshu can be shy and may even be muted. However after 3-4 hours, it starts to show layers of delicate citrus and stone fruit along with hints of tropical fruit as well as floral, spicy, and mineral character. White wine in general tends to fall apart after opening a bottle for a day or two but Koshu almost benefits from air and time. I wonder if this has anything to do with its thick skin.

2. Purity
Detected on the palate as flavor and texture, Koshu presents crystal-clear mineral quality, which I would like to use the word "purity" to describe. I've experienced similar sensation on the palate when I was tasting wines from French alpine region of Savoie, bordering Switzerland. Since Yamanashi is also surrounded by mountains, I suspect the soil composition of mountainous region as well as water quality has something to do with Koshu's purity. (Yamanashi is known for its high water quality, bottling over 40% of water sold in Japan)

3. Umami
Often found in foods such as bacon, cheese, broth and mushroom, the Japanese word umami means "good flavor/taste". It is the 5th basic taste we detect on our tongue along with sweet, salty, bitter, and sour. According to the Wikipedia, umami consists of the carboxylate anion of glutamic acid, a naturally occurring amino acid .  Although I do not know how umami makes its way into a bottle of wine, I've detected on the palate time to time in some Pinot Noir and many Champagne, which spends time on lees and so do many of Koshu made in "sur lie" style.


After a day in Yamanashi, I was impressed by history and quality of Koshu. But more than anything, I was touched by hardworking people's passion and determination to produce and improve great unique wine original of Japan. I look forward to a day when people in different parts of the world recognize and get to enjoy this delightful wine and my guess is that day is not too far ahead in the future.

I would like to send many thanks to the producers and my Koshu Expert who took their time to make my wish come true.

Koshu was recently featured in The New York Times. To read the article, please click here.