Marusan Koshu Kyaku White 2016

Tasting Notes

To paint the picture Marusan is a traditional Japanese producer who have been around for centuries in the region of Yamanashi, just west of Tokyo. The wine here is 100% Koshu (grape variety), which is believed to have migrated from China many many moons ago, so it is now said to be a native Japanese variety. The Koshu is pressed extremely hard to extract as much flavour and texture from the skins as possible. In doing so, the wine has a slight pink tinge like that of the Koshu grape. It's super aromatic and exotic nose like that of a basket of white fleshed fruits like peach and pear. There is also an underlying savouriness on the nose that I've never seen before in a wine... Japanese terroir perhaps??? This savoury line is continued onto the palate and here it really gets crazy. It's sake-like! Rounded glycerol texture and exotic fruit characters upfront with a drying, rice-like finish. You have to try it to believe it! - Chris L