Grace Cuvée Misawa Rouge 2019

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 strong history of innovation, becoming one of the first in the country to introduce Vertical Shoot Positioning (VSP) in 1990 to improve grape quality. It remains family-run today, led by winemaker Ayana Misawa, Chotaro's great-great-granddaughter, and is considered a benchmark for quality in Japanese winemaking — balancing traditional craftsmanship with progressive technique to express the unique terroir of the region.

Cuvée Misawa Rouge is a Bordeaux-variety blend grown on the Misawa Vineyard — Merlot for fruitiness, Petit Verdot for spice, and Cabernet Franc for elegance. Each variety is vinified separately in small batches by lot until just before bottling, and matured in French oak barrels for 15 months. Grapes are brought to the winery immediately after harvest for a two-stage sort and spontaneous fermentation, and the wine is bottled without fining or filtration. The exact blend composition shifts with each year's performance — in vintages where the weather doesn't cooperate, no wine is made at all.

Vine growth went smoothly through April to June 2019, with little rain and plenty of sunlight. July and August brought cloud and rain elsewhere in Yamanashi, but the impact on the Misawa Vineyard was limited and carefully managed. September's lingering summer heat let the vines catch up on ripening that had been slowed by a late summer, and although record typhoons and heavy rain struck the Japanese archipelago in mid-to-late October, damage was modest and the fruit was left to ripen properly before harvest. Acidity levels ran generally high for the vintage, giving wines with real tension and tightness.

The Wine Front — 94+ points (25 July 2023)
"There's quite a lot of sweet oak here, plenty of cedar, cinnamon and cardamom, yet no shortage of raspberry, blueberry and cherry fruit. It's medium-bodied, the raspberry coulis flavour rides the wine (is it Cabernet Franc dominant?), and then it falls spicy and oaky, but the bright fruit keeps its head above the oak, and there's a cool 'mineral' character that mitigates that oak, and lets it stay bright and trim. There's some coffee bean on a silty tannin finish of excellent length. It's very good, and while I'd rather it had less oak, I get that for a 'premium' wine, that's maybe the brief, or intent. Serious business, anyway."
Read the full review at The Wine Front