Feb. 5
I went to Katsunuma Yamanashi with my son.
At first, we had nice local foods on lunch.
Then we visited to Marusan Winery.
We checked the new vintage of Chase the Grape maturing in the cask at the winery.
This wine is the fourth vintage produced by Dai Naito, who is my son.
It is made from Muscat Bailey-A and Merlot grown in Katsunuma.
We tasted the maturing wine and found they were growing well.
I felt very natural – elegant fruits and nice mouthfeel.
I think and hope that they will become a very nice wine.
Then we went back to Tokyo and joined in Furano Wine wine maker’s dinner.
It was held at Machikado Glass, which is a popular wine bar in Machida, which is my local town.
Furano Wine is very popular winery in Hokkaido and located in the second northern limit in Japan.
Mr. Katsuya Takahashi, who is the chief grape grower and wine maker, received us.
He is the specialist for the wine making in the very cold area.
The winter low temperature is under -30℃!
His talk was very academic and professional.
However, his talk was very interesting because he use very easy and simple words.
I also leaned many, many things from him.
Then we enjoyed the excellent marriage between six glasses of Furano Wine and very nice dishes of Machikado Glass.
It was a very nice dinner event.
I was moved a lot!
Thank you very much!
