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The Koshu Wine Project
Contact info:
Inose
The Koshu Wine Project
e-mail:info@koshu.org
TEL: 03-3295-5900
FAX: 03-3295-5619
KOSHU Wine and PEOPLE
Comments about KOSHU
Director, Koshu Wine Project
Ernest Singer
Thanks to all or worldwide supporters for an extremely positive response to the first vintage of Koshu Cuvee Dubourdieu in 2004. The wine sold out immediately and was appreciated and praised by experts in Japan, America, England, France, Spain and Italy. This year we have been blessed with an excellent harvest and will be releasing 2,200 cases in the spring. This vintage will be exported to Europe and America and a small quantity will be made available in Japan.
In January the final blend of the new vintage was decided and we plan to embark on an extensive international marketing campaign particularly targeting Japanese restaurants. In mid-April the first five hundred vines of Koshu were planted at the Asagiri site. Currently, we are planning for the construction of a modern winery to be completed and in full production for the 2007 vintage. We will also have another 10,000 vines on order that will be planted at various vineyard sites throughout Japan.
I appreciate the overwhelming support I have received for the Koshu Project. I am looking forward to the potential of winemaking in Japan and introducing our wine to the world.
Sincerely,
Ernest Singer
Director, Koshu Wine Project
President, Millesimes Inc.
Lisa Brown's Tasting Comments
Lisa Brown is the first person in Asia to pass the tasting portion of the Master of Wines exam and has been actively involved in the Koshu Wine Project. She describes the Koshu Cuvée Denis Dubourdieu as a fresh and crisp wine that has pure aromas of grapefruit, apples, lemons, yuzu and nashi. The wine goes not only goes with Asian cuisine but can match with a variety of styles as well.
》For more details, look up Food Match
Denis Dubourdieu
Professor Denis Dubourdieu from the University of Bordeaux was asked to be the consulting oenologist for the Koshu Wine Project. He is one of the world’s leading oenologists and the man most responsible for the resurgence and worldwide acceptance of a non-Chardonnay white wine.
Antonios Kioseoglou
Student of Professor Dubourdieu and the consulting winemaker for our first vintage.
Fabrice Dubourdieu
Following in his father’s (Denis Deubourdieu) footsteps, he is now becoming one of the most influential people in the world of viticulture. He works for many wineries around the world as a consultant. He also assists his father with the KOSHU project.
Dan Standish
Famed young winemaker responsible for some of the most profound wines in the Southern Hemisphere and the winemaker for our second vintage.
Takatoshi Tominaga
Dr. Takatoshi Tominaga, Research Engineer of National Agricultural Institute in France and his widely known for his research on aroma precursors. His research in isolating aroma precursors in Sauvignon Blanc has been applied to Koshu winemaking in Japan.
Label Design by: Hiroshi Senju
Hiroshi Senju, internationally recognized artist, is responsible for the design and calligraphy of the 2005 vintage label. He chose a simple green and gold design to emphasize the freshness and delicacy of the wine.
Robert Parker's Tasting Comments
In December 2004, Robert M. Parker Jr. visited Japan and tasted the 2004 Koshu Cuvée Denis Dubourdieu and gave the wine 88 points.
Read Parker’s Tasting Comments
“…Koshu had been cultivated in Japan since 1300, and DNA studies have shown the variety has vitis vinifera origins. Traditional Koshu has been made both sweet and bitter (like gewu¨rztraminer, it has tannin in the skins). Dubourdieu decided to minimize skin contact, block any malo-lactic, ferment at very low temperatures, and to total dryness, then age the wine only in stainless steel, but on its fine lees.”
“The 2004, the debut vintage of this modern-styled Koshu, is very promising. Very aromatic, even exotic, the wine is very light-bodied, but has considerable personality, and no doubt flexibility with multiple types of cuisine.”
“Could this be the first dry white wine from Japan to have an international marketplace? I think so. It comes closest to reminding me of a hypothetical blend of sauvignon and gewu¨rztraminer from Italy's Friuli region.”
“If you lament the absence of good crisp dry lighter-styed wines at most sushi bars… perhaps the Japanese have finally found their great white hope.”
- Robert M. Parker Jr., December 2004
The wine is still a very light, dry, slow alcohol(10%) with no malolactic......reminds me of a cross between a Loire sauvignon and Muscadet....just crisp and pleasant and clearly meant to be a wine to guzzle with sushi/sashimi..... it is dry.....indigenous varietal with apparently some vinifera DNA...the low alcohol works nicely in this light-bodied wine....it is crisp and zesty...but not shrill.... ......but the wine is good and should please many of you looking for tank fermented ,non-malolactic, low alcohol dry whites....