While I was still in London, I had a lot of opportunities to go on organised wine tastings and masterclasses. Now that I have left, I can really feel how I miss this. It was a part of my everyday life, and I didn’t realized back then how lucky I was.
I would like to describe one of the most interesting and recent masterclass about Japanese wines with Sarah Abbott MW which was held at 67 Pall Mall.
Before the class I have never tasted japanese wines apart of the famous white grape Koshu and the wine made from it. A really appealing, rather light, citrus fruity and mineral white wine. The most well known from the country.
Here we have tasted some sparkling wines made from Koshu and some white wines as well, it is interesting to know that they make orange wine, we saw how to produce them in theory. But that was the first time I have tasted the so called national red grape of the country, the Muscat Bailey A.
The wine was aged in Mizuara oak, which is a native species with high vanillins. This is the type of oak which gives the Japanese whiskies their noted aromatic quality. I really liked that red wine, it had red fruit flavour packed with cherry, raspberry, cranberry with malolactic fermentation, so I got that gumy funky flavour and of course the noted vanilla spice. It has a medium body with good acidity and a long lenght.
After that we have tasted a Zweigelt, a Merlot and a Cabernet Franc. It was nice to see how diverse is the Japanese winemaking and how are they experimenting with different grape varieties.
After all, wine is made in 36 of Japan’s 47 prefectures. That was a surprising fact and puts the country in a place where we need to watch out of their work in the very near future.
That was my first Masterclass where I have been served some food with the wines, it was truly a very well made wine and food pairing.
If you haven’t tried Japanese wine before and you are not sure if it is worth to spend your money on it, don’t hesitate. The best are probably a little bit more pricy but they are really good indeed.
Have you already tried japanese wines? How did you like it?
Would you try it if you have a chance?
