This is the second installment in our series on JFEX 2023, which was held at Tokyo Big Sight in June. This week we turn our attention to Yamagata Prefecture.
On the afternoon of June 23, 2023, I had the great pleasure of meeting Mr. Katsutoshi Suzuki of the Yamagata Wine Trading Office at Tokyo Big Sight. He had a significant number of Yamagata alcoholic beverages on display, the most impressive of which were Takahata L’Ogre Bleu Majestique, a wine with much gravitas, for which my abbreviated tasting note reads “Bordeaux East!” and Takahata Barrique Chardonnay, which is, according to another of my abbreviated notes, “like Chablis.” But the focus of this entry will not be on these two excellent wines. The aforementioned products prove that Yamagata can do international varietals. Instead, I will focus on Takahata’s Cherry Wine.
Why cherry wine? First, Yamagata’s cherry production is prodigious and the quality is high. Second, though there is a prejudice in some quarters toward non-grape wines, I have tasted some, including a dry pineapple wine from Okinawa, that can hold their own against many wines produced using Vitis vinifera grapes. Third, as cherries are so closely identified with Yamagata Prefecture, where their production dates from 1868, the fruit in general and its wine in particular can be used to attract greater numbers of tourists to the prefecture, if innovative approaches are taken. There is a growing interest in gastronomic tourism in Japan. Enticing this cohort, many of whom are well educated, will require events that are both didactic and fun. Should the Yamagata Tourism Information Center like to explore some of these possibilities with me, I would be happy to share my ideas.
Takahata Winery’s Cherry Wine is a low-alcohol beverage (7% abv), light, pleasantly sweet, never cloying. The color is a pinkish-red. The wine is a blend of Yamagata and German cherries. The decision to blend was taken to achieve the optimal color and flavor profile. It goes down easy.
Yamagata Wine Trading Office: https://www.yamagata-alcoholic-drinks-trading.com/.
Drinking Japan 