Sampling the Grape in Japanese Wine Country

In the little wine country towns of Katsunuma, Enzan and Yamanashi, wine is everybody’s business. Because, in the vineyards, there are only three jobs: either wine growing, wine making, or serving the growers, the makers and the drinkers.

The Japanese have been tinkering with wines for centuries; the native Koshu grape originally came from varieties that grow near the Caspian Sea in Russia, cuttings from which probably made their way to Japan along the Silk Road through China more than a thousand years ago.

Katsunuma’s Takano family became Yamanashi’s first modern wine makers in 1877 after their son returned from studies in France and rejuvenated the family operation. The same vineyards yield a broad selection of table wines marketed under the Mercian corporate label.

The liveliest time to visit the Yamanashi wine country is during the Oct. 1 Katsunuma Wine Festival, when the 27 wineries, which range from multinationals to mom-and-pop operations, roll out the barrels and give everyone a free taste.

The festival is strictly a down-home affair, in which nearly everyone in town puts on traditional family garb and parades decorated wine barrels down main street to the schoolyard, where the serious drinking begins around noon. Dozens of stands surround the tipsy afternoon crowd and offer a host of steaming finger-food delicacies.

The last bottle usually gets emptied by nightfall when everyone oohs and ahhs at the famous Torii-Bira (Flat Tori Gate) bonfire on the hillside and the huge flower-bursts of rockets in the black sky overhead.

Stay overnight and your sunrise reward will be a mountain-framed view of Katsunuma’s famous “Sea of Green,” so named because the vines grow suspended on flat, overhead netting above each spare square yard in town, and, if viewed from balcony height, every house in Katsunuma seems to float in a rolling, leafy-green sea.

All of Katsumuna’s September and early October days are pleasantly the same; the afternoons are warm and drowsy, the nights are sleepable. The eating grapes--flaming red Kaiji, deep-purple Black Queen and golden-yellow Neo-Muscat--are huge and bursting with sweetness. In Tokyo they command ridiculously high prices; in Katsunuma the growers sell them a bit cheaper, but that’s not quite the point.

Beneath Leafy Arbors

Here, it’s quiet, friendly country, where brightly aproned women up and down the main street stand, smile and say “Sumimasen” as they beckon passing cars to enter their family budo-en (wine gardens).

Now and then a carload of Sunday tourists pulls beneath the leafy arbor, where someone offers them a spot of tea, a few bunches of grapes and a taste of wine, then motions them toward the shady picnic tables. There they can spread out their lunch, buy a bottle of their favorite wine, pick a few pounds of grapes and enjoy a pleasant afternoon.

In Japan, as everywhere, wine is to enjoy.

For most beginners, white wines are easier to drink than reds. In Japan, however, the formula is simple: Forget all pretensions, compliment those wines you like, say nothing about those you don’t, and you’ll be the hit of any wine-tasting party.

Among the whites, Koshu grapes were first cultivated in Katsunuma centuries ago, and they remain dominant; now, however, the vineyards yield small amounts of European varieties such as Chardonnay, Semillon, Reisling and Verdelet.

Among the red wine grapes, the specially developed “Bailey-A” variety is the most plentiful, but growers also produce small amounts of Cabernet, Pinot Noir and Merlot.

The Yamanashi wine country is easily accessible by rail, two hours west from Tokyo’s Shinjuku Station on the Chuo Line or by car on the Chuo Expressway. Before leaving town, stop by the Yamanashi Tourist Information counter adjacent to the street level entrance and escalator of the My City Department Store, northeast corner of Shinjuku Station.

The friendly staff can call and make lodging reservations and winery appointments and will furnish you with their useful (Japanese) wine-country map. (Address: Yamanashi Kanko Anaijo, My City Depato, Shinjuku Eki, Shinjuku, Tokyo.)

Try to Communicate

Wine country people will be flattered and bend over backward to help if you try to communicate in their language; few of them speak English, but they do recognize many English words.

If you’re determined to be bashful about trying your hand with Japanese, you’ll want to have a friend or guide to help interpret, although the wineries will try hard to supply you with an English-speaking guide for their tour if they know of your arrival in advance.

Mercian Winery, Japan’s biggest producer, stands smack in the middle of Katsunuma’s vineyards. It’s accessible in 10 minutes by taxi from the Katsunuma rail station, or by car from the Chuo Expressway’s Katsunuma Interchange.

I felt right at home in front of the large wine barrels near the Mercian tasting room, where I enjoyed their Reisling, Koshu and Cabernet after touring their modern, first-class plant.

The company produces several hundred thousand cases a year of about 30 kinds of table, sparkling and dessert wines, which they market domestically for $3 to $15 a bottle.

After the winery tour, stroll two minutes uphill and visit the old Takano winery and family house near the wine garden, where later you may spread out your picnic beneath the leafy arbor. The original 1893 winery building houses the museum, which nicely illustrates the pioneer wine making history and displays the 19th-Century crusher, water wheel, wine press and cedar tanks.

After Mercian, you can visit four of Yamanashi’s best wineries--Manns, Sapporo, Fuji-Hakko and Ste. Neige--in one sweep.

When I stumbled into the Okunotoa family winery I peeked through an open barn window and saw a grandpa and grandma stuffing grapes into boxes. I asked, “Sumimasen, Okunota Shuzo, doko desu ka ?” (Excuse me. Where’s Okunota Winery?) The old man (probably amazed to see a foreign face mouthing Japanese words) stared blankly and turned to the woman; then his face brightened and he touched his index finger to his nose and said in Japanese, literally, “I am Okunota Winery.”

With half a dozen kids trailing us, he led me inside another barn that housed three or four large tanks, stacks of wine cases and a jumble of wine making equipment. He grabbed a big double-size bottle, pulled the cork and poured me a glass of his good, medium-sweet Koshu, which I later took off his hands for $5.

Country Tradition

If you want to take your wine-country tour in the leisurely Japanese country tradition, try staying a night or two in one of the minshuku (family inns). They feature steaming barbecued-at-the-table dinners with plenty of good Koshu wine and immaculate Japanese-style, vineyard-view rooms with soft futon pads on which to rest your head after a hard day upending wineglasses.

First on my recommended list is the Suzuki-en Minshuku, whose personable owner maintains a considerable cellar that he sometimes shares with interested guests; you may reciprocate by offering one of your own favorite bottles at Suzuki-en’s relaxing, wine-garden dinner.

I also enjoy the friendly country atmosphere of Kawaguchi-en Minshuku, which has an enviable valley-view location in the “Sea of Green” a stone’s throw from Mercian Winery.

Both of these lodgings run about $20 per person, including two meals. Book them in advance, especially around the Oct. 1 wine festival. They are both quickly accessible by taxi a few minutes from Katsunuma rail station, or by car from the Chuo Expressway Katsunuma Interchange. There are many more good Japanese-style lodgings reachable through the Katsunuma central booking number, 0553-44-1111.

For more information about travel in Japan, contact the Japan National Tourist Organization, 624 S. Grand Ave., Suite 2640, Los Angeles 90017.