Sonoma County Vintners’ Glass Act for Japanese : Trade: The Northern Californians wine and dine visiting buyers in the hopes of boosting exports.

This was no typical tour of the Sonoma County wine country, and these were no typical tourists.

As a Santa Rosa Junior College instructor explained trellising systems and drip irrigation, a group of young Japanese liquor retailers and sommeliers--or wine stewards--traipsed along behind him through dusty vineyards scattered over the hills and dales of Sonoma County.

Between jotting notes and snapping pictures of grapevines, they stopped occasionally to sample a glass of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.

The viticulture lesson al fresco was part of a campaign by California vintners to drum up more business in Japan, where beer is the overwhelming drink of choice and wine captures only a tiny fraction of the alcoholic beverage market.

“It’s time that young Japanese sommeliers start to understand California wines,” said Linda R. Johnson, executive director of the Sonoma County Wineries Assn. in Santa Rosa. “Many of the older ones are Francophiles.”

The idea for the tour grew out of an April visit to Japan by 19 Sonoma County wineries, including Glen Ellen, Alexander Valley, Kenwood and Grand Cru. During four days in Tokyo and Kobe, they held seminars and tastings for the Japanese Sommelier Assn. Members of that prestigious group determine what wines are served in Japan’s fine hotels and restaurants.

Akio Hayashi, a sommelier and wine consultant to Western-style restaurants in Tokyo such as Spago, Tony Roma’s and Hard Rock Cafe, decided to organize a weeklong U.S. trip for Japanese who deal in the wine trade. Six men and women, ranging from 19 to 32, signed up. Although wineries provided overnight accommodations and most meals, the visitors covered their own travel costs.

That, Hayashi noted, was significant. In the past, the costs of such trips have usually been borne by the Wine Institute, a trade group, or by vintners. The willingness of the individuals or their employers to pay for plane fare, he said, is a sign that interest in California premium varietals such as Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sauvignon Blanc is growing, partly because of stepped-up travel to the West Coast by Japanese.

“When people get to know it more, they will sell more of it in Japan,” said Hayashi, a veteran of several wine-country tours in France and California. The key, he added, is “understanding” the wine.

Masao Suzuki was impressed by the Sonoma County wine industry’s “strong spirit” and the willingness to discuss grape growing and winemaking techniques.

“They share,” said the winemaker with the Budo-Kaju Kenkyujo winery in Furano, on Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido. “In Japan and Europe, they don’t share ideas. They steal ideas.”

After five days of being wined and dined--mostly wined--by vintners, the visitors spent a full day touring the county with Rich Thomas, a viticulture instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College. For most of these residents of congested Tokyo or its suburbs, the wide-open ruralism of Sonoma seemed very foreign indeed.

“I’m going to take you first to a high-tech vineyard and show you why we make the best wines in the world,” Thomas said as the group headed by van to Chalk Hill Winery in Healdsburg.

Once in the vineyards, he talked about sugar content and the importance of pruning leaves to allow more sunlight to reach the grapes.

Mid-morning, the group adjourned to a Chalk Hill conference room, where the visitors sat around a large wooden table. At each place sat nine wine glasses and a plastic “spit bucket.”

For the next hour, the budding connoisseurs swirled, sniffed and sipped.

They then offered their opinions on acidity, richness and “mouth feel” to winemaker David Ramey, with interpreter Emiko Kaufman gamely translating terms such as “angular,” “grassy,” “fruity” and “toasty.”

After lunching at picnic tables next to Lee Martinelli’s vineyards near Windsor, the group headed to a vineyard that Martinelli’s grandfather had planted in 1913 on a steep slope known as Jackass Hill.

There the visitors met Martinelli’s 86-year-old father, Lino, who first tilled the vineyard with horse and plow at age 12. These days he uses a tractor, sporting dusty dungarees and a straw hat. He offered the group tastes of his home “brew,” a heady Zinfandel with 18% alcohol.

By evening, when the host vintners and the Japanese visitors convened at the grandiose Chateau de Baun winery in Fulton for a sit-down dinner, it was clear that the tours had had the intended effect.

Hironori Inomata, sommelier for the Shin-Yokohama International Hotel, said he plans to double the number of wines on the hotel’s list and for the first time include California wines.

Inomata, who stayed at the Murphy-Goode Estate Winery in Geyserville, said his host’s wines weren’t necessarily the best he has tasted. But he praised winemaker Christina Benz’s “energy” and said he figures that “the wines will get better.”

Vintners and others in the California wine industry realize that they will have to be patient about building their export business to Japan. Last year, in fact, U.S. wine exports to Japan actually shrank by 7% from the year before to 4.8 million gallons, although the value of the wine rose 9.5% to $27.3 million.

“There isn’t yet a mass wine market in Japan,” said Joe Rollo, director of the international department of the Wine Institute in San Francisco, which has sponsored tours by Japanese sommeliers the last three years and just held a seminar for wineries interested in exporting to the Pacific Rim.

At $50,000 or so each, the tours have been costly, but Rollo views them as a long-term investment.

“It would take years to get the money back on a case-by-case basis,” he said. But the visits “get the word out. If California doesn’t do it, but France and Italy do, what kind of image would that give?”

Building the Wine Business in Japan

U.S. premium wine sales slowing because of health and other concerns, California wineries view Pacific Rim nations, and Japan in particular, as growth markets. Since the mid-1980s, wine’s share of the alcoholic beverage market has more than doubled, but it still represents only a fraction of the business. Beer is by far the most popular drink, followed by sake, made from fermented rice, and sochu, made from grain or sweet potatoes.

Japan’s Wine Import Market

In 1990, French and German wines accounted for nearly three-fourths of the still wines imported by Japan, with U.S. products coming in a distant third.

1. France: 48.2%

2. Germany: 23.4%

3. United States: 12.6%

4. Italy: 6.0%

5. Australia: 3.4%

6. Others: 6.4%Source: Wine Institute