Monday 6 July 2015

Visiting a winery in Yamanashi Prefecture

I had recently returned from a trip to Tokyo with the family and we went on a day trip to Mount Fuji. Part of the trip included visiting a peach farm where we had lunch and picked peaches, followed by a cherry farm where we ate cherries we picked off the tree. Included as a last stop was a winery which only started up 30 years ago. I wonder whether those who set wineries in this region thought that as Yamanashi is a good place to grow fruit, it should also be good for growing grapes to make wine.

We were given a few wines to taste and they were very much for the local Japanese market, and far from the "specifications" which one has come to expect in the sort of wines we but from wine shops. Grape varieties tend to be various hybrids, though the normal varieties are also seen. They did not however seem to make wine from Koshu, a local grape much used in Japanese wine-making. There were wines made from Delaware, which I did not seem to have encountered before as well as more examples of wines made from their favourite table grape Kyoho. I have blogged about previous encounters with an Australian and a Japanese  Kyoho wine as well as a Korean blend including it.

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