For William Campbell's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:
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 ...
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. When the first vintage of their unoaked Verdejo won ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. Overall wine consumption grew significantly for the first time in many years, ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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. Many people ...
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. From mid-October to ...
