Those of you who have never heard of the Japanese grape variety about which I wrote on Saturday in Koshu gets a passport may be a bit puzzled. But Grace Koshu was certainly the wine that stood out for me on my first two visits to Japan many years ago, and the variety has also found favour with the famous Bordeaux oenologist Denis Dubourdieu, who sent me this account of his involvement with it:
‘This ‘gris’ variety with pale juice was used mainly as a table grape in Japan; it can give rather good quality white wines if...