by Ned Goodwin
According to one of the project s founders, Ernie Singer of Tokyo-based importer Millesimes, the Koshu Wine Project is an ambitious, new attempt in Japan to invigorate a stagnant wine-industry. Together with French oenologist Denis Dubourdieu from Bordeaux, Singer hopes to give the Japanese a wine they can be proud of - and to tap an insatiable market for Japanese culinaria in the States. If his plans come to fruition, Cuvée Koshu Denis Dubourdieu 2005 will be the first Japanese wine ever to be exported. This is revolutionary given the meagre domestic consumption of barely two litres per capita - and the fact that most Japanese wine, including Koshu, is a blend of foreign bulk wine and concentrate, rarely connoting quality. Moreover, Japanese vintners have been forced to use grapes nurtured for an aesthetic appeal intrinsic to a culture in which fruits are given as gifts rather than prized for the purity and intensity of flavour essential for quality wine. Indeed, until recently, Japanese winemakers could not own their own vineyards.
The Koshu Wine Project hails from rich volcanic soils at the foothills of Mount Fuji, an economic backwater. The local government provided subsidies to allow for the establishment of the vineyard, according to Singer. The Koshu cultivar is of vinifera stock, yet is thought by many Japanese to be indigenous to Japan. After all, it has been cultivated in Japan since the 8th century. However, there has been little worth drinking, let alone exporting, according to Singer. Cold fermentations, with neither skin contact nor malolactic transformation and some lees-driven complexity at a swiggable alcoholic level of just 10%, seem to be the key to a new ilk of Koshu. Robert Parker tasted the 2004 and commented that it is reminiscent of a cross between a Loire Sauvignon and Muscadet to guzzle with sushi or sashimi. He rated the wine 87-88 points. Will this be, in the end, nothing more that a new wine borne from domestic pride rather than brands and sentiment?
