At this time of year—summer’s epicenter, so to speak—most people prefer to keep thing’s light and uncomplicated, opting for such intellectually unchallenging fare as Sharktopus (2010)—no, it’s not about a certain American financial-services company, though it could be—or chilling out with musical mundanities like Percy Faith’s rendition of “A Summer Place.” Personally, this writer prefers multiple viewings of The Wild Bunch (1969) and listening to Wagnerian opera at this time, but, let’s face it, he is atypical. But enough of this palaver. Let’s go! To which Wild Bunch types will respond with a, “Why not?”
This week we look at an orange wine, which may not be the orange crossing your mind at the moment, or by some people’s standards, it may not even be a wine. First, we want to make it clear that this is not the orange wine of the long-maceration of the white-skin type. That all sounds vaguely racial or racist or something, so we had better clarify things. Such orange wine is closely associated with countries like Georgia and Slovenia and is enjoying something of a boom right now. The orange wine under review here is made from oranges, in this case mikan, or mandarin orange. Second, some nose-in-the-air types view the grape as being the only fruit capable of producing wine, and a few of these people reserve that honor for the venerable Vitis vinifera species! Suffice it to say, we do not. Let’s go! … Why not?
Prince Kiyomi Wine is a product of Hiroshima produced by Gomeigaisha Kitatani (合名会社きたたに) using an unnamed contract winery. It is a wine made from the Prince Kiyomi variety (100%) of mikan. It is pale yellow with a medium + level of sweetness and some slight acidity. There are no citrus notes on the palate, but it does exhibit canned-mandarin-orange notes on the nose. It is vaguely German-like, as it bears a slight resemblance to Franken. The alcohol is a low 7% ABV, making this more Percy Faith than Percy Sledge. It’s definitely for summer.
Drinking Japan 