Meet the Winemaker (Episode 88): Katsuhisa Fujino, Mercian, by Debra Meiburg MW
Katsuhisa Fujino of Mercian Corporation gives Debra some insights into the Japanese wine industry and its 170-strong wineries. Although Mercia Corporation's winery is located in the Katsunuma area of the Yamanashi prefecture, many are based in the Nagano prefecture, and Debra questions whether the extreme winter cold is a barrier to winemaking, and what the challenges of grape growing in Japan as a whole are.
With Japanese wines staking their claim on several international awards recently, Debra poses the question to Katsuhisa -- what is the attraction of Japanese wines? Katsuhisa discusses the research and development that has gone into the industry since 2000, as well as the introduction of a wine competition in 2003.
Finally, they talk Koshu -- its qualities and perfect food pairings.
Japanese wine | Wikipedia audio article
This is an audio version of the Wikipedia Article:
Japanese wine
00:00:56 1 History 00:01:05 1.1 Early history 00:01:50 1.2 Meiji Era 00:03:05 1.3 20th century 00:06:15 2 Vine cultivation 00:07:11 3 Industry structure 00:08:29 4 Major wine producing regions of Japan 00:10:43 5 Japanese grape varieties 00:11:52 5.1 Koshu 00:12:42 5.2 Muscat Bailey A 00:13:56 6 Designation of Origin
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SUMMARY
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Although viticulture and the cultivation of grapes for table consumption has a long history in Japan, domestic wine production using locally produced grapes only really began with the adoption of Western culture during the Meiji restoration in the second half of the 19th century. According to data from the Japan Wineries Association, approximately 365,000 kiloliters of wine was purchased in Japan in 2013 of which two-thirds was imported wine. Of the 110,000 kiloliters of domestically produced wine only a quarter, or 26,400 kiloliters, came from domestically grown and harvested grapes.The main region for winemaking in Japan is in Yamanashi Prefecture which accounts for 40% of domestic production, although grapes are cultivated and wine is also produced in more limited quantities by vintners from Hokkaido in the North to Miyazaki Prefecture on the Southern island of Kyushu.