My Japan Drinking Trip (1)

I want to say this is the most memorable wine experience I ever had!  NO, I lied!  My memory was actually very blurry, we had too much fun and too much to drink!

Seriously, "I LOVE JAPAN, I LOVE JAPAN".  This was the most amazing trip I had even though we only stayed in Tokyo for most of our trip, but because we can finally meet up with our wine buddies after they left Sydney, the drinking experience was incredible. 

As soon as we arrived, we went to an izakaya (居酒屋), an old fashioned Japanese drinking establishment, and started drinking sake.  We had the Juyondai (十四代) ginjyo (吟醸) with a sashimi platter, so delicious.  Juyondai is a boutique winery and therefore they only have limited production, their sakes are quite rare and difficult to find.  The sake was served chilled in a small shot glass inside a square wooden box.  The wooden box is for the overflow sake, no wastage, pretty smart uh!  I always like chilled sake, since you know it will be a good sake when it’s served cold.  The Juyondai was so smooth, and fresh, with a hint of sweetness, perfect with the premium sashimi.  Note, this was only our first night, first meal in Japan, what else is waiting for us?

Next, was a night on the cruise having monjayaki and an unlimited supply of Japanese beers!  My friends have organized this event for us even before we arrived in Japan, it was a get together with all their drinking friends.  We have met some of them in Sydney and were so happy to see them again.  Monjayaki (もんじゃ焼き) is a type of teppanyaki (Japanese pan-fried) that you cook for yourselves in a hotplate embedded in a table.  Ingredients usually include meat, seafood, vegetables, noodles and mochi or cheese.  The food was delicious and a totally different experience for us.  Since the meal includes the “all you can drink” beer, we ordered the Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, back to Asahi… … I was so glad that they have stocked up the boat!  But I guess the highlight of the evening was meeting a group of wine drinkers, with our limited Japanese and their rusty English, plus our friends’ translations, we’ve managed to come up with interesting conversations.  After dinner, we went straight to a wine bar, we ordered the La Chasse du Pape Cotes du Rhone Prestige.  They only have two bottles in stock and we had both of them!  A beautiful Rhone valley red, dark cherry colour, very feminine.  The most constructive thing we did that night was organizing our next gathering.  After talking about all our wine experiences and the wines we like, we have decided that in our next gathering we will all bring a bottle of wine to share.

Since there is no such thing as BYO in Japan, one of our friend has managed to organise with the restaurant she often dine in, who will allow us to bring our own wines but pay for the full dinner menu that includes a “all you can drink wine and cocktails”.  How good was this arrangement?!?  Never mind, we were just happy that we can BYO!

Then the big night came, we all prepared a wine to take to the restaurant.  Before I left Sydney, I’ve chosen four bottles of wine to take with me, two for my friends to keep and two to be enjoyed together.  So we have decided to bring the Willow Creek’s Benedictus 2006 to our BYO dinner.  It was a Pinot Noir from the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria, where they have a cool climate for growing Pinot Noir.  My friends took three bottles of wines from their cellar, a Western Australia Marsanne Roussanne from Lillian Winery, a Francis Ford Coppola’s Diamond Collection Zinfandel 2005 and a Delta Vineyard’s Pinot Noir. 

With our wines in hands we headed off to the Cardenas Chinois in Shibuya-ku.  We were first to arrive, a long table next to the bar was setup for us.  The restaurant has dim lightings, a bar in the middle with wines on display, a very romantic place to enjoy fine wines.  Not long after we arrived, one friend brought 5 bottles of wines with him, three Rioja, a Merlot and a Moet Chandon Champagne; another brought 2 bottles, a Merlot and a Bordeaux Pomerol 2005; another friend brought a Bordeaux Margaux 2005 and our last member brought the Egly-Ouriet Champagne.

We started the evening with our two Champagnes and the white together with our entrée, a king fish sashimi salad and clams and mussel risotto.  The Egly-Ouriet Brut Tradition Grand Cru was so complex and full bodied, very balanced acidity and oakiness, a real Champagne.  Later I found it listed in the “1001 wines: You must try before you die” book, alright, one down and 1000 to go!  Then we moved on to the reds, as I was the guest at the table, we started with my Pinot Noir.  Not many Australian wines are found in the Japanese market, most of their import wines are French.  Since they were not used to Aussie Pinots, I was afraid that they didn’t like it.  It has a light cherry colour, a young fruity flavour and aroma, a new world Pinot.  They said they liked the wine, but you can never tell whether they are just being too polite!  Then we had the Kiwi Pinot Noir from the Delta Vineyard in Marlborough.  It was a fuller body Pinot, with very nice berry aromas, a more earthy wine.
 
Then came our main courses, a rack of lamb and duck with mesh potato.  We then opened the Zinfendal, a full body red, very masculine with soft tannins.  My friend brought this wine to introduce Zinfendal to me, since I have told her that I never tried a Zinfendal but have only heard about the “Two Buck Chuck” reputation, a valued wine!  She tried to convince me that a Zinfendal can be very elegant, I do agree that it was quite enjoyable with the rack of lamb!  As the evening progressed, we enjoyed our wines, conversations and food.  We opened the Bordeaux, Melot, Rioja, at the end of the evening, we had consumed 14 bottles of wine between the 8 of us.  When it was time to go home, we really didn’t want to say goodbye, as we didn’t know when we’ll see each other again.  It was a sad farewell.  Our promise to each other was that we will KEEP DRINKING!

My Japan Drinking Trip (2)