Wine is perhaps the oldest alcoholic drink in the world, but in Japan it is the newest.
A century of Japanese winemaking shows a history of a struggle to produce wines to equal those of the French as a matter of national honor, because for the Japanese, wine is a symbol of European culture.
Yet, due to many factors including poor climate, high labor costs and a non-wine drinking tradition, Japan has a long way to go to reach this goal.
Japanese winemakers are forced to import bulk wines from abroad to blend with their own products, so it is difficult to find domestic wines made exclusively from grapes produced in Japan.
In view of all these factors, wine lags far behind in production and consumption compared to beer although both began to be produced in the late 19th Century. Suntory Limited, a Japanese liquor maker, estimates that the per capita consumption of wine last year in Japan was one bottle, while an average American emptied 12 bottles and a Frenchman had 93. While beer consumption ranked highest, wine represented slightly more than 1 percent of the total alcohol consumed last year in contrast to 13 percent in the United States.
INFANT INDUSTRY
Winemaking is still an infant industry.
Despite all of these handicaps, there is a group of people determined to make pure Japanese wine comparable to a Bordeaux red which they view as the wine of wines.
At Suntory Yamanashi Winery, winemaking is conducted with as much care as a mother nurtures her baby. Located in the Kofu Basin 70 miles due west of Tokyo, this 247-acre winery is the largest in Japan, and operates on the maxim that good grapes make good wines. To counter the effects of Japan`s climate, breeding of grapes has been going on since 1957 with more than 9,000 kinds of grapes cultivated for breeding purposes.
The success rate of such breeding procedures is one out of 10,000, according to Kenichi Hagiwara, chief of the viticulture section of the winery, and it takes at least 20 years to judge whether a new grape is really good or not.
”Winemaking is like a marriage,” says Ichiro Ohi, former general manager of the winery, ”love at first sight doesn`t sustain the objective.” They have succeeded, however, in creating 10 new grapes to date, and three of them are used to make wine.
Surrounded by 9,000-foot-high mountains which block the rain and effects of the typhoons, the Kofu Basin is the center of Japan`s winemaking, producing 60 percent of the domestic wines. Various sizes of wineries, estimated at 87, are run by from 5 to 15 people.
This region is famous for an 800-year-old European origin grape, Koshu, which produces quite good white wines. However, many of the locally-produced white wines tend to be sweet compared to French and California wines, and the reds often are heavy without aroma.
White wines are the most popular in Japan accounting for 60 percent of total wine consumption followed by 20 percent each for red and rose. At Suntory Yamanashi Winery, the production ratio closely mirrors these figures. Founded originally as Tomi vineyard in 1909, this winery has been the pioneer in Japan`s winemaking. The first German expert was invited to this winery to produce natural table wine in 1902. To him, Japanese wines tasted
”vinegary and had a brownish cast without exception.” Two years later he proudly proclaimed that he had succeeded in making ”the first drinkable domestic wine” at this winery.
Records show that wine first was brought to Japan in 1551 by a Portuguese missionary, and it was highly valued as a medicine by a handful of feudal lords.
Modern winemaking began under the strong initiative of Japanese policy makers who were lured by wine`s diversity of taste, haunting aroma and beautiful colors when served at diplomatic parties.
Two young men from the Kofu region were sent to France in 1877 to master French winemaking. They returned home one year later, but could not succeed in producing good wine. This failure forced the first large-scale winemaker they worked for into bankruptcy nine years later.
After the German expert left Tomi winery in 1914 to fight in World War I, the Japanese gave up their attempts to produce natural table wine without their great teacher.
Severely hit by a strong earthquake in 1923, grape diseases, recessions and a glut of good imported wines, Japanese winemaking almost disappeared until after the end of World War II when large-scale water works were completed and extensive American-style farming was introduced to the old Tomi winery. Some 130 people now are at work in peak season at Suntory Yamanashi Winery to produce 300,000 cases annually.
With their wish to become Japan`s Bordeaux, all wines produced there are bottled into Bordeaux type bottles. Red wine also is made from cabernet sauvignon and merlot, grapes produced in France`s Bordeaux region for great red wines.
POOR CLIMATE
However, even with continuous efforts and burning passion, people cannot control the climate. Everytime Ohi visits vineyards in Bordeaux, he covets their ideal climate for ideal grapes. ”People over there took it for granted that good grapes ripen naturally once planted,” says Ohi. ”But for us, to make good grapes has been our most challenging problem.” Another big challenge for Ohi and his followers is to improve the image of Japanese wine. Ohi laments that even today people in Europe and America are not aware that wine is produced in Japan.
Diseases can spoil grapes literally overnight in Japan. Suntory people check carefully not to miss the slightest sign of a disease. Their work is aided by the use of 30 years of accumulated data on daily weather and harvest conditions.
At times, they put paper covers over each bunch of grapes to prevent diseases and protect them from rain and wind. Three most vulnerable grape types were selected from their total 50,000 grape vines in 1974. It took 30 people 20 days to complete covering 1.2 million grapes. However, their efforts were in vain. Due to an unusually cold rainy summer and their misjudgment-to delay the harvesting of the grapes by only one day, 1974 recorded the worst harvest, half of the annual production.
”From 35 years experience at this winery, I have learned how powerless a man can be facing the great nature,” says Ohi. ”I decided to leave the company, if the next year would bring the same result. I was like a heart-broken young man who was rejected by my lover.”
But Ohi`s cold lover finally gave him an astonishing present. In late September, 1975, noble rot, which was believed impossible to produce in Japan, was found in this vineyard. Ohi persuaded others to delay harvesting until noble rot became really ripe, taking a risk of spoiling other grapes. ”I only thought to make noble rot wine, the first in Japan, even it would be only a bucketfull,” recalls Ohi.
Noble rot is ”a gift from Heaven,” rarely harvested high saccharated grapes which produce a rich white dessert wine called ”King`s wine.”
The crop of noble rot reached 2.5 tons starting from riesling in mid-October to semillon just before Christmas Eve. Three years later, 158 bottles of Chateau Lion Noble d`ort priced at $370 a bottle, came on the market. ”The color is gold and it melts like honey on your tongue,” says Juntetsu Shichiri, Suntory`s executive manager in its wine division. They have succeeded in harvesting noble rot grapes almost every year since 1975.
Suntory`s challenge has continued Ohi`s retirement from the winery in 1987. The company`s Chateau Lion Tomi, $50 a bottle, has gained a reputation which is ranked in the middle range of Bordeaux`s red by world top sommeliers in blind taste tests. To overcome Japanese wine`e image problem, the consistent policy of Suntory has been to let wine speaks for itself.
”This year is a bad year for wine,” says Hagiwara looking up at the rainy sky. ”We won`t get noble rot either.” He admits that the red wine still needs Bordeaux`s strength. ”But in five years, we will be ready to export our wine to the world,” says Hagiwara.
CONSUMPTION GROWING
A wine boom began in Japan about a decade ago. A $1,200 Romanee Conti is selling well at a Tokyo downtown department store. Australian Beaujolais Nouveau are imported to cover while French ones are off-season. As more Japanese discovered the joy of wine while visiting France, the U.S., West Germany and Italy, wine consumption is rapidly growing. As late beginners, however, Japanese tend to judge wine`s quality based on its price which discourages the average middle class person.
So Japanese winemakers` task is not only to sell wines but to educate people on how to enjoy less expensive domestic wines.
”We encourage using wine to promote communications. Our current campaign suggests having dinner with wine at home with your wife. Or try wine in a relaxed manner with cheese and French bread,” says Shichiri.
Sounds simple, but it is a formidable task to change the lifestyle of workaholic Japanese businessmen. Until Shichiri`s vigorous campaign succeeds, wine remains a symbol of a quality life enjoyed by the people in France or the United States. –
