Japanese winemakers aim for world markets (Feature)

By Takehiko Kambayashi Jun 7, 2010, 4:08 GMT

Tokyo - Japanese wine enhanced its global presence when the country's winemakers won six silver and 25 bronze medals at the International Wine & Spirit Competition (IWSC) in Britain in mid-May.

Japan may be well known for its sake rice wine and fine food, but the Asian island nation is not the first country that comes to mind when thinking of wine.

However, Japanese winemakers, trying to catch up with the nation's other proud products, have started putting more effort into exports.

Japanese winemakers still have to deal with different settings such as higher humidity, more rain and less sunshine compared with their European counterparts. Also local farmers, most of whom farm small plots, opt to grow produce that can fetch a higher price than grapes for wine, such as peaches.

Moreover, there used to be no government body with the authority to examine whether wines meet the quality requirements stipulated by European markets, said Mari Inose, a spokeswoman for the Japan Wine Project (JWP), which works to sell Japanese wines abroad.

Cost is among the biggest problems facing those producing wines for export.

'It is very costly for small-scale wineries to produce wines for export by themselves, so we need an organization like ours,' said Chikao Okubo of Koshu of Japan (KOJ), an organization of 15 wineries and business groups in Yamanashi, a major viticulture region in Japan.

Many of the award-winning wines at the 2010 IWSC are produced from the Koshu grape in Yamanashi.

The grape was regarded a delicacy by the ruling class during the Edo period (1603-1868) as Yamanashi is just 100 kilometres west of Edo, today's Tokyo.

Soon after the 1868 Meiji Restoration, which opened up Japan to the West, the idea of winemaking began to gain a foothold in the country and some Japanese were sent to France to study.

Wine production expanded rapidly especially after the end of World War II. The region today is dotted with 80 wineries and most wines are sold domestically.

In January, the KOJ travelled to Britain for its first overseas promotion tour for their white wines.

Okubo said its members were delighted by the warm response to their products, adding that he was 'pleasantly surprised' that the British were interested in Japanese wine.

While the KOJ received some government subsidies, the group was amazed when they saw how other major competitors such as New Zealand, Italy and France promoted their products on a much larger scale, Okubo said. 'We saw their firm national commitment [to promote their wines],' he recalled.

The JWP got the support of respected international winemakers, scientists and industry leaders from Japan and overseas, to produce wines for international markets, Inose said.

In December 2007, JWP's Koshu wine, derived only from native Japanese grapes, finally received the government's export approval and the winemakers in January 2008 shipped a first batch of 480 bottles to Britain and later another 5,800 to France.

The JWP grows the Koshu grapes in Yamanashi, Nagano and Shizuoka, central Japan. In 2009 they bottled 1,000 bottles of its VSP Cuvee Denis Dubourdieu 2009 for export and hope to sell it at 5,000 yen (55 dollars) per bottle in Europe.

Meanwhile, major Japanese winemakers like Mercian Corp show little interest in exporting their products.

Mercian sells about 1,900 wine, champagne and sparkling wine products, including imports from more than a dozen countries.

The company's Chateau Mercian Niitsuru Chardonnay 2008 and Chateau Mercian Kikyogahara Merlot 2004 won silver awards at the 2010 IWSC.

Mercian is taking advantage of the prestige to attract more Japanese consumers.

'Our focus is to expand our customer base in Japan,' Etsuko Minami, a spokeswoman for Mercian, said. 'The average Japanese person consumes only about three bottles of wine (or about 2.25 litres) a year.'