Grace
Wine Story
The colour of Japan - I remember when I was a child, my grandfather would let me sniff Koshu and said to me “This is the aroma of vinifera”. My father would bring me to the sun-bathed vineyards, showed me a bunch of Koshu grapes, lucid with a light purplish shade under the sun, and said to me “This is a restrained Japanese colour”.
Koshu has pale carnation pink skin rather than bright pink like vivid or hot pink, shy and unpretentious Japanese people might see themselves in Koshu’s low-key color. Inherited from my family’s passion, I grew up together with Koshu. Koshu is said to arrive from the far-away South Caucasus over 1,000 years ago. Throughout the years, it not only has not faced extinction but instead was integrated into our soils.
To us winemakers brought up in Yamanashi, no matter where Koshu came from, it will not change the fact that it is our most treasured grape variety. Koshu continues to thrive. Its hidden potential, occasionally revealed, has impressed me time and again.
I hope you will enjoy the taste my provenance and my family have taught me to appreciate.
In pursuit of Japan’s ideal wine - I am the first female winemaker in the family, rather unusual for a traditional family such as ours. When I was a child, there were no female winemakers at all throughout Japan. In my family, all female members including myself attended the same all-girls school. I remember I wore my mother's hand-me-down uniform to school. Both my grandparents and my parents got married via arranged marriages. Because I have a brother, it was not expected of me to become a winemaker. In Japan, family businesses are passed down through the paternal line.
However, I have benefitted from being a female winemaker. After I finished my studies in France and South Africa in my twenties, I had the rare opportunity of completing two harvests per year for 6 years in consecutive between Japan and various wine regions in southern hemisphere. If I were a son in the family instead of a daughter, I would have returned to Japan right after my studies and been helping my father running the winery, rather than taking the freedom travelling the world exploring the various shades of winemaking.
During my vintages abroad with exceptionally talented winemakers, I have been thinking what being Japanese wine should be. First of all, Japan is a small island blessed with a profusion of nature and distinct four seasons. I believe Japanese wine should reflect this unique identity. In addition, it should express the remarkable Japanese temperament of sincere mentality and meticulous. Elegance and delicacy should be the two keys to symbolize Japanese wine.
La Rencontre avec Matthys Wines (How we met Matthys Wines) - Frank and his two amazing sons visited Japan a few years ago and they dropped by in GRACE WINE. I know how "small" Japanese wines are in the grand scheme of the world's wine industry. However, I adore Frank's passion and was very touched by what he told us that “Koshu is the exponent of Japanese elegance”. We are thrilled with our relationship with Frank and his enthusiasm in Japanese wine.
