Grace Cuvée Misawa Rouge 2017

Grace Winery (Chuo Budoshu) was founded in 1923 by Chotaro Misawa in Katsunuma, Yamanashi Prefecture, the birthplace of Japan’s wine industry. The winery has a history of innovation, being one of the first to introduce modern techniques like Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) in 1990 to enhance grape quality. Today, the winery is run by the Misawa family, with the current winemaker being Chotaro’s great-great-granddaughter, Ayana Misawa. The winery is committed to the philosophy that great wine comes from high-quality grapes grown in exceptional vineyards. They focus on traditional Japanese craftsmanship while also implementing progressive, modern techniques to enhance quality and reflect the unique terroir of the Katsunuma region. Grace Winery is considered a benchmark for quality in the Japanese winemaking community. 

Cabernet Sauvignon (backbone), Merlot (fruitiness), Cabernet Franc (elegance) and Petit Verdot (spices), carefully grown on the Misawa Vineyard, are each vinified in small batches, separated by lot and variety until just before bottling, and matured in French oak barrels for 15 months. The grapes are brought to the winery immediately after harvest, where they will undergo a two-stage sort process and spontaneous fermentation. After maturation, the wine is bottled without fining or filtration. The grape variety composition depends on the year’s performance, with no wines produced in years when the weather was not favourable.

THE WINEFRONT

Grace Cuvee Misawa Rouge 2017 – 95 / 100 Points

MBlackcurrant pastille, blueberry, lead pencil, white flower and semi-dried tomato. Medium-bodied, quite savoury with that ripe tomato and nori character, but also pomegranate crispness, and raspberry. It’s calm, composed, distinctly ‘mineral’, with gentle crushed rock tannin character, and sweet and sour black fruits on a long fresh finish. So distinctive and fine. Beautiful and differen

– Gary Walsh (Jan 2022).