Château Mercian Koshu Gris de Gris

Koshu grapes are grown in the Fuefuki district, one of the 13 cities located in Yamanashi Prefecture. Harvest takes place from late September to early October. Grapes are destemmed and crushed and the juice is divided into three cuvee's, the first portion spends four weeks with skin contact in a stainless tank, the second, two weeks with skin contact in a wooden vat and the third has two hours of Themo maceration and cooling down overnight with skin contact. The three wines are then blended and aged in oak barrels for 8 months.

As grapes were never indigenous to Japan all grapevines had been introduced to the region with the movement of the spice route and silk roads over 2,000 years. It is believed that about 1,300 years ago grapevines were introduced to Japan where the climate was too hot, cold, wet – too extreme – to grow grapes for wine. Ultimately the existing grape variety most successfully grown in Japan became known as Koshu, which was the then name for the prefecture in which it grew. This prefecture then took the name of a Japanese prince and became Yamanashi, which remains the principal region producing Koshu. Responsible today for 40% of all Japanese grown wine grapes, it is believed to be the naturalised hybrid of a Georgian grape variety. Ampelographers continue to isolate the DNA of Koshu, but we do not actually know, outright, its source. What we do know is that it is a lurid pink on the vine, generally grown in the local tana method (overhead bamboo trellis).