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March 28, 2024
Experiencing Nagano's terroir firsthand and drinking wine with your mind is the ultimate! | TRAVEL
TRAVEL | Karuizawa Marriott Hotel
Makers' Dinner at Karuizawa Marriott Hotel: Château Mercian Mariko Winery Edition
Karuizawa Marriott Hotel, the gateway to the Shinshu Wine Valley, collaborates with distinctive local wineries to host engaging events. This feature highlights a makers' dinner held last autumn. In partnership with Château Mercian Mariko Winery, the event offered a special dinner experience that allowed guests to fully savor Château Mercian wines after a visit to the winery. Similar events are planned at Karuizawa Marriott Hotel this year as well. First, experience it vicariously through this article, and then, next time, discover it for yourselves on-site! An ultimate wine experience awaits.
Photographs by OHTAKI Kaku | Text by TSUCHIDA Takashi
The breeze is refreshing. I wish I were a grape!
Fellow wine lovers, are you enjoying delicious wine? But of course, delicious wine is delicious. A truly special wine experience becomes blissful when shared with special companions in a special place. After all, amplifying the "deliciousness" is paramount. As a wine lover myself, I, like all of you, have dedicated my life to it.
With that conviction, I declare here: I believe the ultimate way to enjoy wine is to visit the place yourself, feel the terroir, and savor it with companions.
Karuizawa Marriott Hotel crafts events that capture the hearts of such wine lovers. Leveraging its prime location with easy access to the Shinshu Wine Valley, it has begun organizing collaborative events with wineries. The event I attended last autumn was the second of its kind. This particular day featured a makers' dinner in collaboration with Château Mercian Mariko Winery.
Allow me to explain. A "makers' dinner" is an occasion to enjoy a winery's bottles alongside the wine maker (such as the head of winemaking or the owner). It's a noble concept, savoring wine while listening to the maker's stories on-site, but the real appeal lies in hosting it within the restaurant of a luxury brand like Marriott! This is because the hotel chef designs a special course tailored to the wines being served that day.
Tonight, the wine is the star, and the food, its devoted attendant. The course is constructed to enhance the wine's flavors. And all this with impeccable hotel quality! The dedication of the chef and sommelier in meticulously pairing each wine is palpable. This level of excellence truly excites wine lovers.
The program begins with a visit to the winery. Access to the site is, of course, by a dedicated bus arranged by the hotel. Participants gather briefly in the hotel lobby before boarding the bus. Since we'll be enjoying alcohol, this is the only sensible way to travel.
Château Mercian Mariko Winery, newly established in 2019, stands on a gentle hill, offering panoramic views of vineyards in all directions. The estate spans 30 hectares, equivalent to six Tokyo Domes, and is planted with 70,000 grapevines. It yields approximately 100 tons of grapes annually, translating to about 100,000 bottles of wine.
This is truly a state-of-the-art winery from Japan's oldest wine company. Its scale is impressive, but more than that, the sense of place is something you can only experience by being there. Feeling the breeze and the sun, one can imagine becoming a grape oneself.
Now, for the tasting. This is the part I truly relish. Everyone falls silent, not out of disinterest, but because their minds are racing to process the profound experience they are witnessing. The word "terroir," which I had read countless times, evokes a cascade of realizations, surprises, and emotions when experienced firsthand, merging with the wine and surging through the body.
Feeling warm and fuzzy from the tasting, we returned to the hotel for an art experience. We tried a painting activity where we expressed the flavors of Château Mercian through coloring. Though I thought it might be challenging for me, having graduated from university a quarter-century ago, I found myself surprisingly engrossed. My embarrassment lasted only the first five minutes. Soon, I was adding my own touches, like using water to bleed the colors from the water-based pens on my glass.
And then, the main event of the evening finally began.
Dinner Menu
Amuse-boucheBaked Shiitake Mushrooms from Nagano Prefecture and Escargots
AppetizerShinshu Salmon Mi-cuit, Pressed Autumn Eggplant, with Nagano Prefecture Trout Roe
SoupPotage of "Botchan" Pumpkin
Fish CourseNagano Prefecture Char Gateau with Colorful Vegetables, Beurre Blanc Sauce with Grapes from the Winery
Meat CourseNagano Prefecture Pignolet: A Deconstructed Presentation
Meat CourseGrilled Shinshu Premium Loin, with Grilled Matsutake Mushrooms and Matsutake Duxelles
FromageNagano Prefecture Cheeses with Winery-Grown Grape Chutney
DessertNagano Prefecture Sweet Potato Crème Brûlée with Vanilla Ice Cream and Berry Sauce with Winery-Grown Grapes
Wine List
Mariko Sparkling Chardonnay & Sauvignon Blanc
Mariko Pinot Noir 2021 (Winery Exclusive)
Mariko Rosé 2021
Hokushin Left Bank Chardonnay Rivaris 2019
Hokushin Right Bank Chardonnay Rivaris 2020
Mariko Syrah 2020
Mariko Omnis 2017
It began with "Mariko Sparkling." This is a sparkling wine blended from two white grape varieties, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc. While produced using the carbonation method, it incorporates components that maintain the bubbles for an extended period, achieving a gas volume akin to secondary fermentation in the bottle.
Then came the first surprise: a Pinot Noir paired with the amuse-bouche. Yes, following a sparkling wine with a red, especially a Pinot Noir, is not the conventional approach. This is an exceptionally rare Pinot, with only 250 bottles produced at Mariko Winery in 2021.
Pinot Noir with shiitake mushroom flavor? It's a perfect match. As Pinot Noir ages, it develops mushroom-like aromas. Finding common aromatic ground between food and wine is a classic pairing strategy. The brilliance here lies in deliberately placing a red wine in the earlier part of the pairing, adhering to that theory.
Growing Pinot Noir in Japan's terroir is said to be challenging. Pinot Noir grapes have exceptionally thin skins, and if they are exposed to autumn rain, the skins can split, leading to fungal contamination. Despite these difficulties, the limited Pinot Noir that thrives here deserves to be celebrated not in comparison to French varieties, but as a Japanese Pinot! Surely, everyone present felt the pride in pairing it with shiitake mushrooms.
The final red wine pairing was reportedly the first red wine crafted by Mr. Tamura upon his appointment at Mariko Winery. The 2017 vintage benefited from a cool summer followed by warm days and rapid temperature drops at night from September to October, creating ideal conditions for grape growth. The tannins are fine and the wine is exceptionally elegant! Mr. Tamura, the winery director, noted that due to the grapes' excellent condition, the wine might still be considered slightly young even after six years, suggesting further aging potential.
Thus, through the pairings for each dish, it was a night to confirm the magnificence of the wines. Reflecting on my participation in this makers' dinner, I realized that Japanese wine is currently undergoing a period of dramatic change. Unlike established European wine regions such as France, knowledge and understanding of wine in Japan are being rapidly rewritten.
You might wonder, "Why now?" It's because there's been a significant shift away from merely imitating French styles towards exploring approaches suited to Japan's climate and landscape. This isn't limited to producers; luxury hotels like Karuizawa Marriott Hotel are also increasingly focusing on Japanese wine tourism. Sommelier Mr. Matoba shares his perspective:
"When I began my sommelier studies, I learned about the differences between the right and left banks of Bordeaux's rivers. Now, there are similar distinctions between the right and left banks of the Chikuma River basin. I find great satisfaction in introducing these real-world nuances."
Meanwhile, Mr. Tamura, director of Mariko Winery, requested that the meat dish paired with Syrah be seasoned with pepper for this dinner. "As we aim for a unique Japanese wine flavor, there are strengths unique to areas with significant rainfall. Syrah is one such example. When the soil has higher moisture content, the peppery notes in Syrah become more pronounced. I asked for the seasoning to complement this characteristic in the pairing," explained Mr. Tamura.
Hearing about insights and characteristics that are currently being discovered and understood is an immense pleasure. Wine lovers are thrilled by such stories. Moreover, it's incredibly important that these stories are told in one's native language. This is crucial, so let me emphasize it again: hearing the story of wine in Japanese sparks the imagination immensely. Unless you are a native English or French speaker, this is not possible on overseas tours.
I was personally deeply impressed by Chef Umetsu's profound understanding of Japanese wine. After completing his training in France, Chef Umetsu returned to Japan, and his cuisine, while rooted in French tradition, is not overly rich but rather soft and delicate, appealing to the Japanese palate. This style pairs wonderfully with Japanese wine. "I believe Japanese wines are just as delicious as French wines. However, they are similar yet distinct. I want to support that difference through my cooking," Chef Umetsu stated.
The direction of uniquely Japanese wines that professionals are pursuing was encapsulated in this makers' dinner. Ah, this is why I can't stop. "Deliciousness" with a story is simply unbeatable.
After all, the mind has all the information it needs to savor deliciousness. The verbalized flavors resonate repeatedly in the brain. How could any wine lover not be satisfied by this?!
NAGANO WINE Discovery 2024
The theme for 2024, which began in spring, is "NAGANO WINE: Circling Through the Seasons with Aroma." Each season, three carefully selected bottles from Nagano WINE, chosen by Sommelier Matoba, are proposed, evoking the seasonal flowers, fruits, and spices that color Japan's four seasons. Other events for enjoying NAGANO WINE are also in the planning stages. Expectations are high.
https://www.karuizawa-marriott.com/
Karuizawa Marriott Hotel
Address: 4339 Nagakura, Karuizawa-machi, Kitasaku-gun, Nagano Prefecture
Access: Approx. 15 minutes by free shuttle bus from JR Nagano Shinkansen Karuizawa Station
Conclusion (Reiteration)
The ultimate table setting for enjoying wine at its best is to visit the region yourself, feel the terroir, and savor the liquid. And, to listen to the stories of local professionals. That is all there is to it.
