tokyo food file

wineterroirs.com on François Dumas, pioneer of French natural wine in Japan

There's an extensive post in the excellent blog www.wineterroirs.com on bio wine importer/pioneer (and also longtime Tokyo resident) François Dumas.

We had the chance recently to meet François Dumas, who is possibly the first to have set up a wine-import business in Japan centered around French natural wines : his company Le Vin Nature is entirely centered on the distribution of (mostly French) natural wines. His story is passionating because more than business, his career is about passion and intuition moves. First, he is a trained architect in France, then he organized music shows in Japan and ended up setting up a wine import business... François came to Japan first 1979, he was a trained architect and he came for a one-year study on traditional Japanese houses, from the far north to the Japanese south. Back in France in 1981 he worked for the newly independant radio network Radio Nova, this was the time the World-Music was very strong in France and the new freedom in the radio waves was very exciting. Then he went back to Japan and organized music shows there with African musicians as well as people like Gainsbourg, Charles Trenet, Jane Birkin, Marianne Faithful, Maceo Parker and others. Serge Gainsbourg was not known in Japan then and he has become sort of a cult singer since. When the techno-music era began, he decided to stop this job, leave the business to his associates and begin do something with wine, even though he remained the president of this concert business (Highlife international) until 2006. So, in 1997, he decided to explore another field and gather a list of organic and biodynamic wineries and import their wines here. There weren't any specialized import of natural wines here then, the wine lansdcape was almost limited to Bordeaux which he felt was boring. From the start he had the wines of Overnoy, Chateau Le Puy (before it turned organic and discovered how not to use SO2, he adds) and many others...

             The full post is over at  www.wineterroirs.com

Good to see the word is spreading about natural wines. Kudos is also due to Katsuyama-san, who besides being the master of Shonzui (and Grape Gumbo) is a legend in the Tokyo wine world.

A few years ago I wrote up Shonzui in the Japan Times... I don't make it into Roppongi so often. You're more likely to find me in another favourite bar that specialises in natural wines, Ahiru Store.

San-Sun: Japanese wine blossoms in an eclectic microclimate

Anyone who thinks that the only wine produced in Japan is Koshu — or that it's only grown in Yamanashi — should think, and drink, again. San-Sun is a great little place to be re-educated.

Every day you'll find half a dozen or so bottles opened for sampling by the glass, many of them available by the whole bottle too. All produced inside the country, from Hokkaido, in the north, to as far south as Kyushu — there are wineries in every prefecture except Okinawa and Kagoshima, apparently — all are worth knowing, and some are excellent.

Even the Koshu doesn't necesssarily taste the way Koshu is supposed to taste. This one had a lot more in common with Sauvignon Blanc...

But there's no mistaking the grape in this Pinot Noir...

San-Sun (it's also written 3sun or 三sun) is a cosy little place with minimal decoration. Just counter seating for eight, plus room to stand at three small tables along the back wall...

It's very straightforward, bright, accessible, welcoming — which of course is a reflection of the young owners, Enomoto-san and his wife. They're doing a great job.

San-Sun lies in the little micro-neighbourhood — barely more than two rows of shops, restaurants and bars lining a side street — wedged into the corner where Inokashira-dori comes down to hit Yamate-dori.

Although the address is Uehara, think of it as a part of the Yoyogi-Hachiman enclave that got split off when the looming, hulking, newly expanded elevated section of Yamate-dori was built. It's less than 5 minutes from Yoyogi-Koen or Yoyogi-Hachiman stations.

San-Sun doesn't have a web site as such, but you can track them down via their Twitter page here.

neighbourhood dining with fino and finesse

Coming up in my Japan Times column tomorrow...

An intimate kitchen with counter seating and wine aplenty...

Dainty but with no shortage of flavour...

 And a nice sense of style...

No ordinary neighbourhood restaurant.

 

zeppelins and margheritas: all's good at da M.

A few more images of my current favourite pizzeria, as profiled in my Japan Times column on Friday...

L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele only opened at the end of January, but the Harley riders have already discovered it.

From the outside it looks a bit big and impersonal — not the compact, intimate setting of the original in Naples. But this is all that counts: the handsome blue-tiled wood-fired oven.

Inside it's bright and spacious, white tiles on the wall, retro lampshades up above, tables packed in close together.

Busy all the time, even midway through a Saturday afternoon...

The menu is short and to the point...

To start: an order of the zeppoline di alghe, pizza dough mixed with ao-nori seaweed and deep-fried in puffy one-bite balls. That's one I never saw on the menu in the old city of Napoli. No complaints, though: it's good. And the house wine, a Nero d'Avola, ain't too bad either.

But tradition rules when it comes to the pizzas: only the two official kinds are offered, Margherita and marinara, each available in two sizes — and just exactly the same dimensions as you'd get at the original da M in Naples. This was the Margherita, in the normale size.

Yes, excellent. The flour, the tomato puree, the mozzarella, everything is imported fresh (virtually daily I was told) from Naples. So good it's worth a close-up...

There's nothing fancy here. It's certainly not a place to linger, and really there's no reason to. Having eaten your pizza — and they have mandatory "one pie per person" policy — you reqlinquish your table for the people waiting in line outside. Bottom line: it's fast food, but done at a comfortable, friendly Napoli pace.

This is just the first branch (anywhere in the world) of the venerable da Michele. But judging from the reception it's getting in Ebisu (and the word I got from Maurizio, the manager), it won't be the last. Expect to see plenty more branches of da M around town before too long.

Here's the web site...

drinking naturally at code kurkku

The fundamental ethos — yes, you could call it the underlying code — for all the kurkku restaurants is respect for the environment. That translates into using organically grown vegetables and meat from reliable free-range sources.

Not surprisingly, it also means serving "natural" wine. The compact wine list is entirely populated with what is known here as  "bio" — basically organic or biodynamically grown, although not necessarily all sulphite-free

Here are two we had with our lunch the other day at code kurkku. The Domaine des Huards is 100% Romantin, a grape not a million kilometers away from Chardonnay, giving quite a strong Chablis profile.

 

The Coenobium was especially good. A blend of Trebbiano, Malvasia, and Verdicchi, apparently it's made by Cistercian nuns in Lazio just north of Rome. Fruity and light but with a pleasing complexity, it went very well with our pasta, and the chicken that followed, too.