Do You Know Koshu? Grace Wine – Japan’s Leading Producer
For over 100 years, Grace Wine has been a leading figure in Japanese wine production and in the advancement of Japan’s own Koshu grape. Thanks to a friend who carried a bottle from Japan to Istanbul, I got the chance to try one of the winery’s Koshu wines.
Grace Wine
Grace Wine began in 1923 under the name Chotaro Brand Budoshu. Chotaro Misawa founded the company in the town Katsunuma, in the Yamanashi Prefecture district Higashiyamanashi just north of Mount Fuji. By 1953, under his grandson Kazuo Misawa, the company’s name officially changed to ‘Grace’ and Kazuo launched his first wine in 1957.
Over the next 65 years, Grace Wine grew and made huge strides forward in the world of Japanese wine. In 1983, Grace Wine produced the first wine in Japan under the new Katsunuma Geographical Indication (GI). In 1989 Shigekazu Misawa, Chotato’s great-grandson and the fourth generation of the Misawa family,took over as president. That same year, the winery debuted its flagship wine: Cuvée Misawa, a varietal Chardonnay.
In 2008, Ayana Misawa, Chotaro’s great-great-granddaughter became the winery’s Head of Viticulture and Oenology. The following year, winery president Shigekazu was named chair of the newly formed Koshu of Japan, a group of 15 cooperating wineries in Yamanashi. The winery opened its new wine cellar at Misawa Vineyard in 2015. Bigger and more modern, this cellar has space to mature 95 barrels and 60,000 bottles. And, while Grace Wine had won several medals over the previous years, in 2016, its Grace Extra Brut became the first sparkling wine in Asia to win the Platinum Award and the Best Asian Wine at the Decanter World Wine Awards.
In the Vineyards
Grace Wine has multiple vineyards situation in Katsunuma, in the villages of Hishiyama and Toriibira, and Akeno, the Misawa Vineyard in Akeno and the foothills of Mount Kayagatake in Hokuto. Most of the grapes the winery works with are international (aka French) including: Chardonnay, Cabernets Franc and Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot. On the local side there’s Muscat Bailey A: a deep pink-skinned grape variety used to make light red wines in Japan, bred in the 1920s by Kawakami Zenbei, the “grandfather” of Japanese wine. And, of course, Koshu.
In order to express the typical characters of the region, Grace Wine carries out massal selection in its vineyards, selecting the vines that produce ideal fruit and planting the cuttings. To further ensure wines express their terroir, the winery uses a unique blend of indigenous yeasts from, not just the grapes but also the soil and flowers in the vineyards. In fact, Grace Wine became the first winery in Japan to start using indigenous yeasts from the vineyards. 
Koshu
There are a variety of stories as to how Koshu came to Japan. What they seem to agree on, is that the grape has been present in the country for 1000 years or more. Largely favored as a table grape, it wouldn’t be until the late 19th century that earnest efforts to make wine with it began. The pretty pinkish grape is a likely naturally occurring hybrid between a (unknown) European vitis vinifera and one or more Asian grape varieties.
Traditionally, growers have planted Koshu using an X-shaped pergola system. This, combined with covering individual bunches with wax paper “hats” or covering entire trellises with plastic rain covers are used to protect the thick-skinned grapes from rain. Several producers, including Grace Wine, have shown impressive results using a vertical shoot positioning (VSP) system.
In 2010, it became the first grape variety indigenous to Japan to be included as a registered grape variety of the International Organisation of Vines and Wines (O.I.V.), allowing it to appear as a varietal name on labels.
You can read more about Koshu in this great article from Decanter.
Grace Wine Hishiyama Vineyards Koshu, 2020
Grace Wine produces several Koshu wines, usually from specific vineyards. My friend brought us the Grace Wine Hishiyama Vineyards Koshu.
The Hishiyama vineyards are the highest viticultural area in Katsunuma, sitting between 500 and 600 meters above sea level. Complex topography, large granite formations and gravelly clay soil, and nearby rivers make this a great area for white wine production. Apparently, it is particularly prized by Kazuo Misawa for the lively acidity and smoky minerality it lends the wines.
Grace Wine hand harvests its Koshu grapes after which they are fermented and matured in stainless steel tanks. The resulting wine was a brilliant platinum-green color with a delicate bouquet of citrus, flowers, and spice. A dry wine with mineral character, details of fruit blossom, bright green coriander, and cinnamon bark wrapped around a core of citrus, yuzu, and white fruits. Firm acidity with a nice citrussy length and a kiss of minerality on the finish.
So interesting to be able to try this! I really hope I get the chance to try more Koshu wines in the future.
*featured image courtesy of Wikipedia
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