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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

Recent Topics on Koshu

Results of Survey Trip to the United States:

We visited eight popular Japanese restaurants in the San Francisco and Los Angeles area and made the following observations.

  1. Cuisine is divided into two types, authentic Japanese and fusion.
  2. Generally speaking the vast majority of customers are neither ethnic Japanese nor Asian- Americans but upper middle class non-Asians.
  3. wine lists varied from almost non-existent to moderate to quite extensive but generally the selection was poorly chosen, many supermarket Californian and cheap French with very little consideration for the uniqueness of the cuisine. Even in the better restaurants looking at the level of food, ambience, service and beverage, beverage was by far the weakest
  4. The staff was not knowledgeable about wine, not prepared to advise the customers
  5. On the other hand, owners and top management were both educated and interest in wine
  6. Average markup was 300% from cost, average menu price was 30 to 50 dollars
  7. all restaurants had a reasonably good list of gsakeh
  8. Most offered wine by the glass which by far had the largest turnover, serving size is four to five glasses per bottle
  9. No evidence of in-store promotions, but some offered a gsakeh tasting series, e.g. three glasses of different fine sake
  10. many choose Japanese food because they are health conscious (very few overweight customers!)

Recommendations

Limit initial sales to interested fashionable restaurants in key cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Chicago, Boston, New York, Washington and Miami.Introductions make placement and cooperation much easier. The clients need to be serviced by a sales rep who thoroughly understands the concept of the product. At the start the retail sales should be limited, customers are turned off by high markups for wines they see for one third the price on supermarket shelves. Look for 20 to 100 case annual turnover per restaurant, start with an initial 700 case shipment and keep back another 700 in Japan to make absolutely sure that the restaurants do not run out of stock. Feature the restaurants on the website so that customers know how to find the wine, managers are very receptive to limited exclusivities. Make a second trip to the States in September when the wine is available and try to target 30 to 50 on premise locations.

Staff must be educated to promote the wine, interest of the waiters is critical. POP materials would be very helpful.Interesting the local press would be a big boon, promotional events involving the media should be considered, as well as interesting the foreign media in Japan. Consider a wine by the glass promotion. Some restaurants wanted a more expensive wine, a greserveh might be an option. Special Koshu glass, or possibly an gOh glass could be interesting.

On developing new customers the following sales points should be emphasized:

  1. Even though gsakeh is the drink of choice for Japanese cuisine some customers prefer wine (Actually many people feel that Koshu goes better with Japanese food than gsakeh but many restauranteers and chefs have very strong opinions and have supported gsakeh for many years and should not be offended).
  2. gKoshuh was made to highlight cuisine not to overpower it. That is why it was made with the emphasis on primary fruit, completely dry and no oak or MLF.
  3. California or French wine with Japanese cuisine creates the same type of conceptual resistance as ordering an Italian wine at a French restaurant.
  4. Because the grapes has been in Japan for 11 centuries it has uniquely Japanese flavors and aromas just as French varietals have components that are native to France
  5. The uniqueness of the wine (the only internationally lauded Asian wine) piques curiosity
  6. The project is backed by the Japanese government and supporting it creates an excellent image for the restaurant
  7. The wine is natural and low alcohol which is in line with modern taste
  8. the wine is generally not available in retail shops which makes the price appear reasonable and partial exclusivities will have customers come searching for the wine and create a new customer base

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