ASHIKAGA, Tochigi Pref. -- Five hectares of misty hillside in Tochigi Prefecture contain one of Japan's best-kept secrets -- a tiny vineyard that may one day become this country's first producer of world-class wines.
What's more, should Coco Farm and Winery pull off this incredible feat, it will be almost by accident, because the farm came into being more than three decades ago for a quite different purpose.
The managing director, Bruce Gutlove, explains: "Noboru Kawada, Coco's founder, was a high-school teacher who foresaw that the rise of the nuclear family would create a need to house the mentally handicapped," he says. "So in 1969 he created Cocoromi Gakuen, where students live together and learn nature's most basic lesson: planting, watching something grow, then literally seeing the fruits of your labor."