Away from the glitzy buildings of Ginza's main crossing, behind a drab frontage down a nondescript side street, sits a wine bar that really stands out from the crowd. In contrast to the majority of Tokyo's wine bars, Cheese and Wine Salon Murase embraces New World rather than Old World wines and boasts of a huge selection of 230 bottles to prove it.
Softly spoken owner Kenichi Murase doesn't seem like the type to break out from the crowd, but when he opened his own bar six years ago after working as a sommelier for Okura Hotel in Toranomon, that's exactly what he did.
"I think the taste of wines from these countries really suits Japanese palates, because the flavors are so delicate," he says.