2012 Here Comes The Moon Wine Details

Japanese

This wine comes from the 2011 vintage, a year marked by the calamitous earthquake and tsunami that hit northern Japan in March, 2011. Even in such trying times the vine flowers and yields beautiful fruit.
Here Comes the Moon is made from the Kerner grape, a variety relatively unknown to most. It was developed in Germany in the 1950s and is grown to produce outstanding wines in Germany, Austria, northern Italy, and Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido.
From the first time we attempted making wine from Hokkaido-grown Kerner we’ve been taken with the tremendous potential that the grape holds. It is marked by an intensity of fruit, strong aromatics, and a crisp spine of acid.
Kerner perhaps reaches it ultimate expression in the coastal hillsides of Yoichi, an hour’s drive west of Sapporo. Cooking ocean breezes and fertile, iron-rich soils combine to infuse the wines with an extra depth of flavor. The grapes for this wine were grown by Mr. Yuji Fujisawa, a friend of many years and one of the most accomplished growers that we have ever met. Mr. Fujisawa’s Yoichi vineyard stretches over 4 hectares, and is primarily planted to Kerner and the red wine cultivar Zweigeltrebe.
Despite the sad fact of the March disaster, Mr. Fujisawa again performed his magic, turning out grapes with powerful aromas, sturdiness of body, and a beautiful acidic snap.
Careful pressing, fermentation using wild yeasts, and a post-fermentation aging period in stainless steel has yielded a dry, powerful wine showing to great effect Kerner’s fruit profile.
The origin of the wine’s name, Here Comes the Moon, is from a late Edo Period poem which encourages wisdom, patience, and acceptance…
“One should wait for the rising of the moon, yet should not chase after the falling flower petals”.

7/Oct/2013

●2012 Here Comes The Moon Wine Details PDF