Top 100 pink wines of Japan
Discover the top 100 best pink wines of Japan as well as the best winemakers in the region. Explore the varietals of the pink wines that are popular of Japan and the best vintages to taste in this region.
Discovering the wine region of Japan
Japan is famous for its sake, a rice wine, but Grape wine has been made in Japan for hundreds of years or more. Beer and whisky have also gained a place in the consciousness of modern Japanese, and have even become important contributors to the national economy.
Winemaking has a Long history in Japan, and there are several stories surrounding its origins. The most common is that in 718 AD, a Buddhist monk named Gyoki planted the first vineyards at Daizenji Temple, near Katsunuma (southwest of Tokyo).
Traditionally, the vast majority of grapes in Japan were grown only for eating, and little or no wine was produced. European wine was imported for the Japanese elite for much of the 16th century, but was banned for much of the 17th and 18th centuries under the Sakoku policy of Imperial isolationism. But things have changed rapidly in recent decades. In the 1970s, Japanese interest in the West (and tourism) increased sharply.
Naturally, many Western fashions and traditions made their way into Japan, especially in the areas of food and drink. Wine consumption exploded and, although the focus was on imported wines, domestic wine production naturally increased accordingly.
Today, Japanese viticulture has yet to take hold in the world, as the majority of the country's grapes are grown for the table rather than for the bottle. There are only a handful of grape varieties used for Japanese wine making, the most notable of which are the "native" Koshu, the European Muscat of Alexandria and the Japanese Hybrid Muscat Bailey A.
Discover the grape variety: Concord
It is the result of a seedling planted in the United States, around 1840, recovered near the Concord River, a small river located east of Massachusetts. According to genetic analysis, it is an interspecific cross between the catawba and a vitis labrusca. Concord was for a long time the main variety cultivated in North America. It was introduced into Europe at the beginning of the 19th century, in France at the beginning of the phylloxera crisis, but was not widely propagated. It could be found in the Valleraugue region (Gard) at the foot of Mont Aigoual, in the Ardèche (our photos), etc. Today, it exists only as an isolated strain that can sometimes be found on the edge of a slope, which was our case. Through various and numerous crosses, it has been used to obtain some rootstocks and direct producer hybrids, which have now almost all disappeared.
Food and wine pairing with a pink wine of Japan
pink wines from the region of Japan go well with generally quite well with dishes of beef, lamb or game (deer, venison) such as recipes of burger roll, lamb mouse with onions and red wine or obelix's boar leg in the oven.
Organoleptic analysis of pink wine of Japan
On the nose in the region of Japan often reveals types of flavors of citrus fruit, red fruit or earth and sometimes also flavors of tree fruit, floral or vegetal.
