Chichibu Wine

I went to Chichibu, western part of Saitama Predecture and famous for "Shiba-Sakura (ground cherry blossom) ," to participate my friends's wedding party.  I met many friends of my high-school time and spent a great time with them:)

The wedding party was a nice French-Japanese full-course meal with free drink, so I ordered a white wine, which was the local Chichibu wine!

←Gensaku-jirushi GKT / Chichibu-wine
The grape variety of this white wine is 100% Koshu grape, which is one of the Japanese original grape.  It was the first time for me to drink a wine from Chichibu, so I was a little excited:)

Very clean aroma and bouquet of grapefruits, white flower, and mineral like a stone.  Well balance of fruits flavor and acidity.  Good volume but not too much.  Wow, it's soooooo tasty❤

Actually, I had underestimated this wine before drinking but totally knocked out by this high-quality taste.  Sooner, I recommended to my friends to drink this wine.  They were also very impressed about it as same as me and started to drink it with me.  I don't remember how many bottles we had....

This Chichibu-wine winery was established in 1933 and succeeded to brew a wine in 1936.  The founder, Gensaku Asami, had no knowledge about brewage at the beginning, so he learned it from "Zenbei Kawakami," one of the most famous Japanese wine-brewer at the time.  At the beginning, the business was not going well, having very hard time to sell his wine.  After several years later, his wine was admired by French priest as "Wow, this wine tastes like Bordeaux wine, so great!" This admiration was soon known among Japanese wine lovers, and Chichibu-wine was getting popular; his effort was finally rewarded.

I love the Chichibu-wine's taste, the history, and their passion and effort to wine-making.  At the time I visit to my friend @ Chichibu, I'll definitely visit the winery as well :)

You can buy this GKT wine at this website;

秩父ワイン　GKT（白）　720ml 価格：1,680円（税込、送料別）

Unfortunately, this website is available only in Japanese...

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http://amys-wine.blogspot.jp/2013/04/blog-post_22.html



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Wine Fair info @Tokyo

There is one more wine event @Tokyo.

@Nihonbashi Takashima-ya
World Wine Fair (4/18 - 4/23)
It offers some special set including Leroy's Beaujolais!

Wine tasting event and sales info in Tokyo

It's gonna be a rainy weekend in Tokyo...hmm.... OK, how about going to some wine tasting events!

Here is some info. Check them up!

1. Wine Shop ENOTECA
@ Shiuya Hikarie
It's in the one-year anniversary sale now!
This shop offers \10,000 for 10 full bottles set, \10,000 for 2 bottles of more than \5,000 wine, etc.. Interesting!

@Ginza
Here offers interesting tasting events in this weekend!
20th (sat) "2005 Bordeaux tasting" including Ch. Haut Brion and Ch. Margaux!!! Oh my.... Gotta go!
21st (sun) " Louis Roederer, Chapagne tasting," including Brut Premier NV and vintage, rose etc... hmm that's good as well.

@Roppongi Hills
It's in the 10th anniversary sales!  It offers many rare California wines including Screaming Eagle!!! Wow! I'd love to drink someday!!

Also, it offers a great tasting event as well!
20th-21st (sat-sun) "Mouton family tasting," Ch. Mouton Rothschild, Opus One, and Almaviva!! Oh, wow!!!

well, how about we go Ginza first to have some Champagne and then to Roppongi to have great wines?? It must be a great weekend plan☆

2. Wine Market Party @ Ebisu
It offers a tasting event on Sunday!
21st (sun) "World Reisling wines" from France, Germany, Australia, and USA.  I love Reisling as well.  hmm... may be after Roppongi, Riesling as a dessert❤

You can get some more detail info at below link, but it's only in Japanese...









Have a great weekend!

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http://amys-wine.blogspot.jp/2013/04/blog-post_20.html


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Ch. Leoville Barton '99 / Saint Julien

I went to a wine festival, "world wine and cheese festival," @ Daimaru Tokyo (next to Tokyo station). There are 200 kinds of free tasting wine, some charged tasting wine, and many kinds of free tasting cheese.   Also these products are all on sales (some wine is more than 10% off), and can be shipped to your home.

There are many varieties of wine from all over the world, so I was so excited and tasted so many kinds....

At the charged tasting booth, I found one of the Grands Crus Classe Bordeaux! Yeah, let's taste it!!

Ch. Leoville Barton '99 / Saint Julien (Second Cru)

Dark ruby color with orange at the edge.  Aroma of cassis and blackberries (a bit dried not fresh one) with powerful bouquet of cider, pencil, leather, clove, ciger, truffle and leaf mold.  The tannin was rich , so the texture was a bit tannic at the first.  As time went, the tannin became round and silky.  The wine I had seems at the mid to latter peak.  If I describe it as human, this wine is like "mid to old gentleman." Well, it's in good mean.  It was wonderful wine in the fact.

There are three "Ch. Leoville ～" in Second cru classe of Medoc, Bordeaux; Leoville Las Cases, Leoville Poyferre, and Leoville Barton.  These wineries used to be one winery "Ch. Leoville," whose history began in 1638.  The wine of Ch. Leoville was high quality, thus evaluated and famous as "the vast and great vineyard."  In 1826, the Barton family owned 1/4 of the vast Leoville vineyard, and the history of Ch. Leoville Barton began.        

Its grape varieties is 72% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, and 8% Cabernet Franc.  The wine is bottled after 18 months aging in 50% new oak barrel.

The wine of Ch. Leoville Barton is usually very classic Bordeaux style.  The quality is high, but it's a little minor as comparing with the other "Leoville"s; thus, the cost performance is high.


This wine is available at this online shop;

This site has an English page as well (at the bottom of this site, there is an "English" link), but they ship only within Japan.


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Chassagne Montrachet les Encegnieres '10 / Etienne Sauzet

I had a nice Thai dinner with my friends at hear in Yuraku-cho, Tokyo;
← Aroyna Tabeta (http://www.tabeta.com/yurakucho/)
*The picture is from its website

All dishes are \500 ! And its drinks are reasonable as well, so the restaurant was already full before 7 pm.

It was very warm day, so we took an outside table, had a lot of beer and Thai food.  Yum, yum❤
After the dinner, it wasn't enough drink for us, so we went to a wine cafe at Ginza.

Winshop ENOTECA Ginza, Cafe & Bar Mille (http://www.enoteca.co.jp/shop/ginza.html)
*The picture is from its website

This wine cafe belongs to the Wineshop ENOTECA, so you can drink your purchaded wines at the cafe (charge: \1,050/bottle).

So, we looked around the shop and found a nice Burgundian white wine.

Chassagne Montrachet les Encegnieres '10 / Etienne Sauzet
 
This 100% Chardonnay wine was great! At the first, it was mainly oaky and banana-like bouquet; afterwards, more complex aroma and bouquet came up like fresh citrus fruits, nuts, and butter.  The flavor was something like eating fresh grapefruits.  Mineral and sour (not too sharp) made this wine so elegant.  Very long finish.

Wow....I love this.  I love Sauzet!!

Etienne Sauzet is one of the top 3 winery in Puligny-Montrachet.  It used to be domaine (yield wine by 100% own grape from their vineyard), but currently half Negociant due to heritage matter. However, the quality of grapes from their contract vineyards is great, so Sauzet's wine quality is as great as before (by the way, Sauzet wines are all biodynamics from 2010).

Because of the popularity, it's rare to see any Sauzet wine at shops especially Montrachet Grand Crue, praised by Alexandre Dumas as "C'est a genoux et tete decouverte qu'il faut le boire (hats off and kneel to drink)."

Hmm... I love to drink the Montrachet someday...

Not the Montrachet, the "2001 Bienvenues Batard Montrachet (Grand Cru)" is available at this store!!

Click this pic to Buy

This site has an English page as well (at the bottom of this site, there is an "English" link), but they ship only within Japan.


It's a bit expensive (about \50,000), but worth it! Only 2 bottles left.  Should I buy or try not to.....hmm....

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