For the Wiffers, a Wine Review

First, a bit about the differences in finding and consuming alcohol in Canada as compared to Japan . . .

What Lance and I consider one of the best things about visiting Japan, is the proliferation of access to alcohol and the laissez-faire attitude towards its consumption. In Canada, you can only really get alcohol at certain licensed restaurants and specialty liquor stores. The liquor stores are really of two varieties: private owned and government owned. They usually suffer from at least one, if not several, of the following flaws: bad hours, poor selection, and high prices. Also, liquor cannot be consumed in public. At certain events it is permitted, but you can't just crack a can of beer open on a train and go on your merry way.

In Japan, the situation is quite different. You can readily find alcohol for sale at convenience stores, in vending machines on public streets, and even at train station kiosks. While it's considered rude to be walking around in the open eating and drinking, it's perfectly acceptable to eat and drink while sitting down on a train or bus. In fact, many seats will have flip down trays and/or cup holders to make it more convenient for you. Also, many of the bottles that have twist off caps, now come equipped with little pull tabs, so you can very easily open your beverage.

Now, to set the stage for the wine review . . .

We were heading back from Asahikawa (where we had just visited a sake brewery, sampled, and purchased some bottles to bring back home) and it had been a very long day. We were faced with almost 2 hours on a train to get to the city where our hotel was (and we didn't really know exactly where in the city our hotel was located, so there was that adventure still to come), we had done a lot of walking, and my ankle still hurt like hell. And did I mention we'd just been walking around in the snow in -10 degrees Celsius? Anyway, we got to the train station and had a bit of time before our train was set to arrive so we stopped for snacks and drinks. They had mostly beer and a few bottles of wine, so I decided to pick one up for the train ride ahead. Here are the basic details (keep in mind, this is what I could discern from reading the label, which was mostly in Japanese).

Now, the wine . . .

Furano wine. Lavendar fragrance. A white. 360 ml Bottle with a
real cork - no screw cap. Best served between 6 & 12 degrees
Celsius. A decent 12% alcohol. The little blurb on the front of the
bottle seems to indicate that this might be an expermental brew --> "Furano
viticulture and enology experiment station Shimizuyama Furano Hokkaido
Japan."

The very nice girl at the check out was kind enough to ask if we wanted cups, to which I responded in the affirmative. As I said, it had been a long day, and when I grabbed the bottle, I hadn't really given any thoughts on HOW I would drink the wine, just that I wanted to try it. Once we were settled on the train, I pulled the cool bottle out of the bag, and my heart sank a little when I realized that it had a real cork. My husband came to my rescue though and pointed out that the girl at the store had also put a little corkscrew in the bag. Yup, they provide tiny cups and a corkscrew too. Oh, and did I mention the price? It was 480 Y, which works out to around $5.

As for how it tasted, I thought I could actually detect a hint of Lavendar in the wine. But, it might have simply been the suggestive power of the bottle. since it was one of the few English words on it, and it had a picture of a Lavendar field on the front of the bottle too. It was a fairly sweet wine, and I found it pretty good after the long day we'd had. Probably not something I'd serve with dinner, but to kick back and relax a bit while travelling back to the city on the zoo train filled with hyper children and life sized stuffed animals at the front of every car (I kid you not), it was very much worth the price. I'd give it a solid 3 out of 5. Oh, and it paired pretty nicely with the Pocky too.

On a purely side note, I'm quite glad I opted for the white over the red variety, as you can't see at all where I spilled the wine all over the front of my pants when the train zigged just as I was pouring another cup for myself (did I mention they were tiny, jello-shooter size cups?)

Should I feel so inspired, I may pick up another variety at some other locale on our trip and post another review.