KOSHU WINE PROJECT

THE KOSHU WINE PROJECT

The History of KOSHU

By creating our wine, we brought Koshu to the international market, a long journey for a grape varietal popularized by Japanese royalty.  Indigenous to Japan since the 8th century, the popularity of Koshu peaked previously as table grapes that were considered a delicacy during the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1867).   In fact, the grapes were cultivated in the Katsunuma region not because it was neccesarily the best region for cultivation but becuase it was just 100 kilometers from Edo (old Tokyo) and the Shogun built the Koshu road by which servants could transport the best grapes by marching 3 days straight, directly to his castle.  Surplus grapes were then sold to commoners in what are now important business districts in downtown Tokyo, Akihabara (now one of the world's largest technology districts) and Kanda.

Japanese winemaking has its origins in a diplomatic mission to France, after the Meiji Restoration (1868), the new Japanese government sent a mission to Paris during the Paris Exposition and brought back the first technology for winemaking.  Since then, winemaking flourished but the quality was poor and was sold domestically to those who could not afford sake.

After the Second World War many Japanese wineries began to experiment with both European and non-vinifera varietals. Subsequently, varieties and quantities of table grapes increased, however, from the 1980s the import duties on foreign wines were drastically reduced and domestic wines, unable to compete on both quality and price, saw their market share reduced from 40-20%.

Over the past 50 years, as a number of delicious alternative table grape varieties became introduced to Japan, the production of Koshu declined.  We are happy to reinvigorate Koshu through the production of fine wines, and it is fitting to turn this, Japan's only historically significant fruit, into one of the nation's first successful agricultural exports.