The dot-com era saw an unfortunate number of foreign wine promoters descend on Japan. They were armed with snappy Powerpoint presentations and talk of quick riches, but their only apparent success was in relieving investors of their excess cash before moving on.
In contrast, there are a handful of foreign wine specialists in Japan who started out simply as passionate wine lovers but ended up building their hobbies into thriving long-term businesses. The undisputed godfather of this group of importers is Australian wine specialist Village Cellars.
We recently made a pilgrimage to meet Village Cellars' founder Richard Cohen at his headquarters deep in the countryside of Toyama Prefecture, not far from where the Noto Peninsula juts out into the Sea of Japan.