Wine and Japanese Restaurants

Drinking in Japan has changed a lot in the past two decades.  While shochu (a clear spirit distilled usually from sweet potatoes but also from wheat, rice, barley and even chestnut) has successfully challenged the popularity of beer and sake, wine is the latest darling.  

Wine, of course, is not new to Japan.  It was introduced to the country by the Jesuits in the 16^th century.  But only in recent years have traditional Japanese restaurants put wine on their drink lists.  Now you see words like “grape wine” on street banners of ordinary restaurants, such as the one I ran into in Hiroo, and you know that wine is for salary-men just as much as for the elites.

  

Wine gurus have always influenced wine trends and sales.  In the U.S., there is Robert Parker; in England Jancis Robinson.  In Japan, the most influential wine people are the brother and sister Yuko and Shin Kibayashi, real life wine and food enthusiasts with a sizable wine cellar.  They authored under the pseudonym of Tadashi Agi the tremendously popular manga series “Kami no Shizuku” (“The Drops of God” in English), a story on the search for some of the best wines of the world.  The series has been translated into various foreign languages and has boosted wine sales significantly both inside and outside Japan. 

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One evening at Sushi-Ko Honten in Ginza, the sushi chef served a bottle of Volnay to a couple at the end of the counter.  I chatted with him when he was free.

     “I did not know that you serve wine here.  I did not see a wine list.”

     “We do not have a wine list.”

     “Then how would customers know that you serve wine, and what to order?”

     “We make recommendations.”

Oh!

He went on to tell me that the owner of Sushi-Ko had been stocking up Burgundy for twenty years, and that the restaurant had an inventory of over 10,000 bottles stored in four locations.  

     “How well does red Burgundy pair with sushi?”

     “It goes well, especially with red flesh fish.  But the wine needs to have some years on it.”  By some, he meant ten or more years.

     “I am more a white wine person.  I like Meursault.”

     “That won’t be a problem.  We have Meursault from Coche-Dury, Ente, Lafon, …”  He recited the list of who’s who of white Burgundy.

     “What pairs well with Meursault?”

     “Anago.  The acidity of the wine cuts through the fat under the skin of the fish and results in a perfect harmony.”

Then he added, “I am off tomorrow.  But if you come to lunch, I shall be here with a nice bottle of Meursault for you.”  He did not say which Meursault.  Nor did he mention the price.  He had just made his recommendation.