YAMANASHI, JAPAN — Admittedly, I never thought much of Japanese wines. I had on quite a few occasions, either it be during my travels to Japan or in Japanese restaurants within Asia, tasted Japanese wines, mostly the ones made from omnipresent varietals of Chardonnay, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Unfortunately though, none of the previous wines I tried managed to stick out as really good, and thus I have no single recollection of a brand I thoroughly enjoyed.

I do remember that the wines I tried were all decent, but closer to the New Zealand wine profile, as opposed to European counterparts. The Japanese Merlot in particular was like a juicy Marlborough NZ version. Then came my opportunity to visit Chateau Mercian, arguably Japan’s most awarded winery, and also the most high profile among the growing number of Japanese wineries at present.

HISTORY OF JAPANESE WINE CULTURE
Japan has traces of vineyards as early as the first century, found in Katsunuma, Yamanashi prefecture. But it was the arrival of Jesuit missionaries from Portugal in the 16^th century that made wine consumption a more regular tradition. Saint Francis Xavier (a Spanish Catholic missionary, and cofounder of the Society of Jesus) led a Portuguese mission to Asia including Japan, and was the first known guest to bring wines as gifts to the feudal lords of Kyushu, the Daimyos. The Daimyos were the most powerful feudal rulers, controlling Japan from the 10^th to the middle of the 19^th century.

The wines consumed earlier in Japan were reds that the locals called Chintashu — a portmanteau created from the terms “tinto” (meaning red in Portuguese) and “shu” (Japanese for liquor). As expected, during the early, more primitive stages, wines were mostly imported and on the sweeter side, like ports, or port-like. Because of the unfamiliar taste of astringency and acidity, most imported bulk wines had some sort of sweeteners like honey and sugar added to them to make the finished wines more palatable to the local taste.

Over time, things started to change and this applied too to the wine consumption habits of a more well-traveled populace as well as better adoption of Western culture. The 1970s-1980s were the true start of Japan’s higher quality wine making and vineyard management, and the sprouting of new wineries. And 1970 was also the year Chateau Mercian as a brand was first marketed. Yamanashi remains the prefecture with the largest vineyard holdings in Japan, accounting for over 40% of wine production. Japan is the second largest wine consumer in Asia, second only to Mainland China.

CHATEAU MERCIAN
Yamanashi is just around 120 kilometers, or less than two hours, southwest of Tokyo, and encompasses the northern part of the famous Mount Fuji. The Chateau Mercian winery is located in Koshu-shi, and has a very nice visitor center — the visitor center is very similar to the Australian cellar door, complete with food menu and exclusive wines not found in other retail shops.

The winery actually started in 1877 under the Dainihon Yamanashi Wine Co. The company sent two highly motivated individuals, Masanari Takano, one of the company’s shareholders, and Ryuken Tsuchiya, the eldest son of one of the founders, Katsuemon Tsuchiya, to France to learn wine making techniques and methods. The two gentlemen would bring back their learned skills and techniques and share them with the other employees. But the company encountered disaster when the cuttings and seedlings they brought back from France were infested and would not grow on Japanese soil.

There was also the problem of selling wines in general, as wines were not popular in Japan during those days. The company dissolved in 1886, but Kotaro Miyazaki, one of Dainihon’s shareholders, decided to continue the business and took over its equipment. Miyazaki then teamed up with Ryuken Tsuchiya and his younger brother Yasuyuki to form Kaisan Winery. Miyazaki registered the illustration of “Daikokuten” as a trademark and “Daikoko,” the God of Wealth and Commerce, and one of the Seven Lucky Gods, as a brand for Kaisan Winery in 1891. Daikoku would become the first breakthrough wine brand in Japan.

In 1949, the Mercian brand, a more marketing savvy name was created. The name coined from the words “merci” — French for “thank you” — and “an,” meaning a “person.” “Chateau” was added to the name in 1970, and in 2006, Chateau Mercian became a part of the huge Kirin Group conglomerate. In 2010, the Mercian Katsunuma Winery was rebuilt and became Chateau Mercian which is now a modern state-of-the-art winery.

THE KOSHU EVOLUTION
Koshu is a grape varietal native to Japan, and found primarily in the Yamanashi prefecture. It is a pink-skinned grape varietal most likely imported from the Caucasus through the Silk Road around a thousand years ago. Koshu is actually the former name for Yamanashi, but is now known as the wine varietal.

The Koshu wines piqued my interest over other varietals made by Chateau Mercian primarily because it is truly and authentically Japanese. I tried Koshu wine many years back when chef Gene Gonzales invited me to taste some of the Japanese wines brought in by visiting Japanese businessmen at Café Ysabel restaurant. I remember the wines to be quite crisp, light and flinty, with nice citrusy aromatics. But that was sadly the last time I encountered Koshu till this present day visit to Chateau Mercian.

According to Chateau Mercian, the winery took a chance on the wine making process by experimenting on the sur lie process in 1983. Sur lie which in French means “on the lees,” is the process of allowing a finished wine to continue to sit on the lees in order to extract more flavors. Lees refer to deposits of dead yeast or residual yeast after fermentation, and is a popular method in Loire, especially for Muscadet Sevre-et-Maine AOC. This Mercian way created a Koshu wine that is crisper, dry, and much fuller in flavors. Chateau Mercian shared the sur lie method on koshu with other wineries in Katsunuma to spearhead the improved quality of Japan’s only true varietal wine.

When I was in Chateau Mercian, I opted to do a horizontal tasting of the four different Koshu wines in order to better understand this less well-known varietal.

Here are my customary tasting notes:

• Chateau Mercian Koshu Kiiroka 2016 — “this is a stainless steel-aged version; very fresh, crisp, slightly herbaceous and leafy, longan fruit, with mineral notes on a dry finish; a very easy and subtle flavored wine”;

• Chateau Mercian Tanzawa Single Vineyard Koshu 2016 — “this is a wine exclusively available in the visitor center only, and extremely limited with [a] tiny [run of] 545 bottles made; the wine is aged half in stainless steel and half in oak cask; vivacious, more acidity, tangy, with nice creamy backbone, butter, grapefruit-citrus, slate, white pepper and a dry minerally finish”;

• Chateau Mercian Barrel Fermented Koshu 2016 — “this barrel-fermented version shows more power, the nose is more savory, meatier, rich but acid, quite crisp on the palate, very clean, and [with a] nice slightly spicy finish”;

• Chateau Mercian Gris de Gris (skin-fermented) 2016 — “Gris de Gris means ‘grey from grey’ in French, but in this case, it means there is skin contact during fermentation with the pinkish-skinned Koshu grape; the skin fermentation stayed on for two weeks to extract not only some color, but also more flavors; the color is more pale salmon rather than rosé, but the nose has more character, and is the most aromatic among the four Koshu wines; cantaloupe, lemon-citrus, more green in terms of presence of bitterness, but round out quite well with [a] dry fresh cut grass finish.”

These Koshu wines are best enjoyed with sushi and sashimi, and it makes a lot of sense! The concept is no different than regional wines in Europe pairing well with their regional cuisines. I hope to see more Koshu wines coming to our side of Asia as we attempt to further demystify this exotic grape from Japan.

The author has been a member of the Federation Internationale des Journalists et Ecrivains du Vin et des Spiritueux or FIJEV since 2010. For comments, inquiries, wine event coverage, and other wine-related concerns, e-mail the author at protegeinc@yahoo.com. He is also on Twitter at twitter.com/sherwinlao.