Koshu – the grape variety from Japan that’s now in the UK

These days just about every Asian country seems to having a stab at producing wines. You can buy Indian wines, Chinese wines and now Japanese wines are firmly on the menu.

This week the trade organisation Koshu of Japan held a special tasting – and there are some great wines on offer. Koshu is a particular grape, which has been bred to meet the Japanese needs. The wines are very light, pale coloured and have very gentle flavour with hints of citrus and peach and just a touch of jasmine scent. Because many of them are grown in volcanic soil, they have a slightly mineral flavour. It’s a sort of Japanese equivalent to Chablis.

They go down very nicely with Japanese food – which has a lot of fish and relatively little meat. Of course, they are not easy to find. Selfridges sells a couple of varieties and Marks and Spencers has the Sol Lucet Koshu by Kurambon, which at around £14 is reasonably priced. There are a large number of other Koshu producers, but most of them distribute to the specialist trade or to Japanese and oriental restaurants. The restaurant prices, incidentally, would be about £40 a bottle.  And if you’re looking for something slightly unusual, they’ll go well with your sashimi.