William Campbell - The Japan Times

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Oct 12, 2007

Wine grapes are perhaps the highest-value, most quality-driven legally-grown agricultural crop in the world. As such, growers are usually quick to adopt the latest technical advances for protecting their vineyards. Winemakers have begun to realize, however, that the traditional agrochemicaly-based approach to farming has significant drawbacks, both in terms of quality and long-term economic viability. We spoke with a number of growers recently, and found that a quiet revolution is fermenting in the wine business today.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Aug 10, 2007

Two Victorias, twice the pleasure

Two of the hottest women winemakers in Spain today are named Victoria, so when they banded together to start a new winery, it was hardly surprising that they decided to call it Dos (two) Victorias.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Jul 13, 2007

Four top tipples for summer

The first rule for a summer wine is that it needs to be refreshing. High-scoring monster reds that warm the soul on a winter evening become plodding, heavy, alcoholic beasts on a sweltering day. Under conditions of heat and humidity, such big, bruiser wines leave us weary, rather than exhilarated.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Jun 8, 2007

Mavericks of the Southern Rhône

By any measure, the Perrins are an unusual family, making an unusual wine in an unusual region of France. They've been at the forefront of protecting the quality of French wine, yet they maintain a maverick touch. And after five generations, the owners of Château Beaucastel in the Rhône Valley are still thriving.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Apr 13, 2007

What the Japanese are drinking

Recent government data confirm that Japan remains a nation of beer drinkers, with beer and beer-like beverages accounting for nearly two thirds of the 9 billion liters of alcohol consumed last year.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Mar 9, 2007

This wine school gets better with age

Japan's oldest and largest wine school, the Academie du Vin, is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. Something of an institution in Japan's wine world, the academy has turned out more than 30,000 graduates in its two decades of operation. But rather than rest on its laurels, the school continues to reinvent itself, most recently by hiring Mineo Tachibana as general manager and engaging some of Japan's top new-wave wine luminaries to teach a series of upcoming seminars.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Feb 9, 2007

Avoiding a vinferno

Midway through our life's journey as wine collectors, we found our wine refrigerator almost lost, its engine straining desperately against the summer heat. Delving into the dark wood of the cabinet to remove all the bottles would provide a chance to catalog and glorify years of strategic acquisitions -- or so we hoped.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Dec 8, 2006

Koshu: Japan's great white hope

Winemaking in Japan has a long but difficult history. At first glance, there's the auspicious fact that Japan lies at a similar latitude to sunny, dry California. But here, unlike California, the rainy season strikes during the early summer flowering, and recurrent typhoons batter vineyards just prior to harvest. These conditions render grape cultivation in Japan a difficult and sometimes quixotic undertaking.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Nov 10, 2006

DNA sleuths find the 'original Zin'

In August, the California state legislature passed a bill recognizing Zinfandel as the state's official "historical wine." This caused an immediate outcry among passionate Pinot fans, and sent waves of astonishment rippling through the upper echelons of Napa Valley's otherwise staid Cabernet dynasties.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Oct 13, 2006

Fall in for some wine adventures

A s a welcome series of typhoons scrubs away the last of the summer heat, we find ourselves at long last putting away the beer-bottle openers and breaking out the corkscrews. Fortunately for wine lovers, this fall offers no shortage of temptations.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Sep 8, 2006

Staying mellow about 'malo' wine

T hose who were drinking white wines in the late 1980s and early '90s will remember the virtual tsunami of heavily oaked "butter bomb" style Chardonnays that swept the world. Living in London at the time, I couldn't tell whether sea levels were rising or the entire country was sinking under the weight of the millions of imported cases of Lindemans Bin 65 Chardonnay. A particularly popular example of that style of winemaking, this Chardonnay undergoes a so-called "secondary fermentation" that creates the strong flavor of butter.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Jul 14, 2006

Fine-tuning Washington's wines

Last month's column on the recent success of wines made from grapes grown in eastern Washington state's high desert generated a large amount of reader feedback. Most questions ran along the lines of, "If the Washington desert is such a great place for viticulture, then why weren't they growing grapes there before?" Many readers also asked for recommendations and sources for Washington wines in Japan. A few even pleaded for the identity of the winery that recently received two perfect 100-point scores from Robert Parker.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Jun 9, 2006

Coaxing true delights from a desert

Any remaining doubts about the ability of the Washington state region of the United States to produce world-class wines were recently put to rest when Robert Parker's legendary Wine Advocate newsletter awarded perfect, 100-point scores to not one, but two Washington wines.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

May 12, 2006

Resurrecting Girard

Good wine at a fair price is not a phrase heard often in Napa Valley these days, but the buzz among Tokyo wine lovers is that the recently revived Girard winery is now delivering just that.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Mar 10, 2006

Bisty boys invade Omotesando Hills

Nothing makes my heart skip a beat like the discovery of a great new wine. Yet the prospect of paying for a full bottle of something new, only to discover on first sip that it's definitely a not- for-me style, can prove daunting for even the most adventuresome. Fortunately for wine lovers in the Tokyo area, a just-opened wine bar in Omotesando Hills promises to serve 80 eclectic wines every day, and all by the glass.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Feb 10, 2006

Napa vineyards survive deluges

Tremendous flooding in California's wine country over New Year's made for dramatic, televised scenes of almost completely submerged vineyards. California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger added to the excitement, proclaiming, "Napa was 4 feet under water, creating tremendous damage."

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Jan 13, 2006

Perfect winter match: big reds and cassoulet

When the Imperial Palace moat begins to ice over, our thoughts invariably turn to the big red wines of southern France, and to the region's ultimate winter dish -- cassoulet.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Dec 9, 2005

Drinking in a historical view

Choosing gifts for the wine lovers in your life can be a minefield, as passions among oenophiles can sometimes run as high as those in the most spirited political or religious debates. To avoid a dreaded, "Oh, you shouldn't have," we offer two gift ideas that are sure to stimulate and surprise even the most jaded winelover.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Nov 11, 2005

Can Japan sales save Beaujolais Nouveau?

Japan overtook the United States as Beaujolais' top export market in 2004, but a disastrous sales campaign for Beaujolais Nouveau last year raised serious doubts as to whether Asia can save the Beaujolais from the hole that they've dug themselves into.

LIFE / Food & Drink / VINELAND

Sep 9, 2005

Hail Vouvray, Aristocrat of the wine world

Just as The Aristocrats is the dirty joke that comedians tell each other after the punters have gone home, Vouvray is the tipple of choice among sommeliers once the ties have come off at the end of the evening.

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