Ep. 1561 Ayana Misawa | On The Road With Stevie Kim Throwback Instalive

Since two thousand and seventeen, the Italian wine podcast has exploded. Recently hitting six million listens support us by buying a copy of Italian wine unplugged two point o or making a small donation. In return, we'll give you the chance to nominate a guest and even win lunch with Steve Kim and Professor Atilio Shenza. Find out more at Italian One podcast dot com. Welcome to another episode of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stevie Kim. Each week, she travels to incredible wine destinations interviewing some of the Italian wine scene's most interesting personalities, talking about wines, the foods, as well as the incredible travel destination. I keep on saying Am I alive, and nobody laughs. You know, I've been saying Am I alive, you know, for, oh, I know Isaiah. Hello, Isaiah. And tuned. Oh, Shao. She's joining from home. Hi, Sean. J f one. No idea. Hey, Quagini. Paul, how are you? Rose Marino, Vino. I think I know her. You're driving Virginia crazy. You're driving Virginia crazy. Hello. Hello. Hello everybody. Thank you for joining us. We're just waiting for Ayana. I hope she knows this is. Oh, here she is. Here hello. Okay. Let me ask to join. Hey. Good morning. Hi, Steve. How are you? Good. Oh my god. You're you you have makeup on. Right? No. You know, I wanted to call this, series no makeup because since COVID, I've starting, you know, have the mask. I don't wear any mask. And I have to tell you a secret, which haven't done before, so hold on. Let me make this loud. Can you hear me? Can you hear me again? Yep. So, I have no lashes. So I used to get my lashes done, but be because my beautician had COVID, so I stopped doing that because I wore no makeup. And now this whole series is called the no makeup series. You know? So how are you? You're Good. Very good. Thank you. Thank you so much for doing this. Oh, yeah. Thank you. I asked you to send me one bottle. You sent me in one case. So now I have eleven more bottles. Okay. You're gonna have party tonight. You know, I think we should organize a special tasting for Vinitzley, you know, with the ones. Also, the Magnum ladies, maybe we can get together. Hello, everybody. I hope we have a lot of new people. I guess you bought in the the Japanese crowd, kind of. You know? Japanese community. Yeah. Yes. What time is it there now? Eight thirty PM. Okay. So it's not too bad. Last time I saw you was in Vienna. I think so. Yes. And we went to the concert together, and you are wearing the beautiful Kimona? Yes. It was a few years ago. Yes. It was a few years ago. And I was thinking, like, you know, every time we have a guest, we have kind of, like, some on a crop. It's not kimono. It's like a fake kimono, which I bought, like, in Tokyo, you know, so I thought I was going to bring that, but I couldn't find it this morning. So I have no crop for you. But let me just introduce you to my tasting panel. Okay. Okay. So I'm not alone because I'm not a wine expert. I just drink this stuff, but I'm trying to learn. I've started my w said diploma journey very painful. So this is very good for me, for my students, but also for our chasing panel. So let me introduce you. This is Rebecca. You know, Rebecca used to sell your wines in London. So she's an expert. And then we have a new entry. He's the photographer, but he's Belgian. Hi. He really wanted to try your wine. So we said, okay. We'll let you in. Oh, thank you. We have our analogous in house analogous Christina. Wow. And then, Colleen, she's crazy about everything Asian, mostly skincare, but she really wanted to do this today. Okay. Branson is our w cents school coordinator. And Yacoko, he's our Italian wine ambassador at Lodge. And then we have Lan. Can you try? No. Don't try that. He's Chinese. Don't don't let them fool you. He's Chinese. Okay? But he was Oh, wow. It's Ryan Wine Ambassador Program coordinator as well. So let's start with let's pretend because if there's not much to pretend, because we know nothing about Japanese wine. So where do you think we should start? Like, can you give us kind of an overview in terms of for especially for the w set students? What are, like, the essential things that we need to know? Like, must know about Japanese wine? Yamanashi, Yamanashi GI, and Kosher, our signature grandmother. Very good. Let's let's start with Yamanashi. How do you say Yamanashi? Yamanashi. Yeah. Okay. Everyone say Yamanashi, Okay. Yeah. Okay. So tell us about Yamannashi. Where is Yamannashi exactly? Yamannashi is located in the center of Japan and one hundred kilometers from Tokyo. So next to Tokyo, they're quite different place. You know, Tokyo is a enormous busy city, but Yavonashi is like a countryside. Eighty percent surface covered my mountains. So it's mountainous area and a very strong continent that could have made. And the Amanache is the cause number one, my region, but also officially recognized by our Japanese government as producing wine region for the first time. It's a very important wine region as well. So it's the first GI of Japan. Right? Yep. First GI of Japan. Yeah. And, most important grape variety is horseshoe because they're Which is the which is the wine we'll be trying today. Very exciting. Okay. Yeah. But how big is Yamanashi? Like, how many wine producers are that? About eighty eighty producers, like eight zero. Do they all start with you at the same time? Because you've been doing it for quite a bit now. Nineteen twenty three as I recall. Yep. We are a family owned coronary since nineteen twenty three founded my great, great father. My father, it's the first generation. He's the owner now. Tell him to give it to you now. It's time. You've dedicated your entire life. He should just dig the winery to you now. What is the waste before? He doesn't understand. So so you you inherited to the business. You are born with it, basically. Yeah. I was born in the winery, so I always say to my father, it's like I didn't have a choice, but I'm the first female winemaker in the family. So I'm so excited. But are there other female winemakers in Japan? Is it quite common? Not quite common, but increasing. I found out I was a child. There are no female winemakers. So now it's growing, increasing. So I think it's good. Listen, where did you study? Like, where did you study winemaking? I studied in Yamarashi, and also I studied in, France for three years. My making agriculture, and I Whereabouts in France? Bordeaux, Bordeaux University? Why does every Asian go to study in Bordeaux? Like, nobody comes to Italy. It's a problem. I need to, like, I need to create some kind of, like, exchange program, you know. Nobody comes to study wine. This is the problem. Before we start tasting your wine, I'm going to have Rebecca also because she has her Italian lesson at one o'clock. So I'm going to have her who was who used to sell you on. So she knows everything about your line. So I thought it would be nice to focus on the region given it was the first g I is the first g I in Japan. What is it about this region that makes it particularly good for grape growing and cost you in particular? Yeah. I think climatically where, we have very good climate. Like, it's a strong controlled climate, so quite, least rainfall and lots of sunshine and Also, the soil profile is very complex. It's like a valley. So we have very diverse, soil profiles. So I think it's very suitable for the white making, but also I think for in terms of the history, it's very important because the Amanashi is kind of the first price of the Japan's wine industry. So I think, in terms of its history and the climate and also course, because kosher, reproducing the most importance, kosher wines in terms of its volume. So I think Kosher history and climate are three cases, I think. Okay. So seeing that you've started with the kashu, we're going to start tasting the line, and then we will also ask you some questions. So tell us about kashu in particular. What is the special about? It's an indigenous great variety. First of all. Koshe is very unique grape variety. I think the best price of course she was, the Caucasus region, like any other British benefit or grape varieties because she was bloat to Japan. Through China from the Asia Minor one thousand years ago. So quite long history, and still How many years ago? I'm sorry? One thousand years ago. Yeah. You said that so casually, so I didn't I missed that. One thousand years ago. Okay. So it's such a, yeah, long, long time. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So quite a long history, and there's still very mysterious, great variety because we don't know Kosiot's parents, but DNI shows Kashub, is a family of b t c minifiras, a kind mysterious grape variety. And, what do you think of that difficult to compare with other grape varieties like, in terms of its purity and subtlety and delicacy, I think it's quite unique grape variety. The taste is very unique. But the color of the grape is pink. Right? Yep. And so we're going to ask you some technical questions about skin contact. And here is my colleague, Yakapa. Do you wanna pass this to Yakapa? I wanna ask you something about bread making So a caution. Okay. We we already told that it's a pink gray variety, but it's also a semi or an aromatic variety. Do you do a little bit of cold maceration before the fermentation to extract all the aromas or you're afraid to extract the pink color and don't have such white. Yeah. Some white makers do that kind of orange wine. It's, like, a trend in Japan, but I personally don't like much. I sometimes drink orange wine from other grape varieties, but from kosho, I personally, it's not my taste because kosho's skin contains a lot of phenolics, phenolic compounds. Sometimes it's too bitter. So far, I'm not a big fan of, orange wine from Koshe, but some wineries do. Thank you. Another very first question because I tried the field's fapping caution. Do you think it's suitable for sparkling wines this grape variety? We tried sparkling coffee before. We do sparkling wine, but from Shanay, not Koshew. So far, I think for the, traditional method, sparkling wine, I think, how can I say we need to find out some good balance between acidity and sugar contents, you know, it's push your house, though sugar contents, coronaries, it's a little bit difficult to find out the balance between the acidity good good acidity and the sugar content? So, yeah, suffice, I think it's a little bit difficult to make qualities by going away from cultures, but we will see maybe in the future. Thank you very much. No. Thank you. Thank you for your question. Please bear with me. I will just try another please, please. Oh. Very good. Yeah. I understand totally. Yeah. Okay. I have a question about the food and one pairing. So naturally, local wine goes well with the local food. So I won't change you in a bit What kind of food outside of Japan pays well with, the crucial wines? And I have also a follow-up question as what are your most important export markets and why? It's a very good questions for the food pairing Of course, because your goals, well, with the Japanese food, like sushi, tempura, it's kind of very delicate Japanese food. But also, we export to UK, so in the UK, somewhere is. Unserved because she always oysters. And, for example, she brings Calbacho, and because she is a very good friend of sushi food, but maybe not butter sauce, very creamy butter sauce, not like that, but the very light kind of sauce seafood, I think very, very good. I think because you can be paired with European cuisine as well. The most important market outside Japan is probably UK, and we export to Italy as well. The Italy is, you have great wines or over Italy, very competitive, I think. In the UK, I think it's the most important export market to us. How about France? Cause you study in France? Actually, we export to France as well. It's changing. You know, the market is changing. It's more open and open, so it's gonna be interesting. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Alyanna. Listen, so I have one colleague who can make it today. Her name is Shrowland. She's also studying diploma with me. She isn't here. So I'm going to ask her her question. Oh, she's a there's a woman. She said Kai Dizzing. I'm a Japanese living in one thirteen. I enjoy Kosu wan so much. That's good. It's the one you sold out. Kaya Desic. DMming. You could have participated together. You know, it's so funny because your wines are sold out in Italy, to be quite honest. Because I try to get a hold of it. But, I mean, I think it was the two eighteen vintage. But it's all sold out. So I think that's good news. And also, a Japanese local restaurant from Verona saw the wine on my insta, and he contacted me because he wants to know how he can procure your wine. So what does he do? What does he what does he have to do? Get in touch with your importer? Yeah. Oh, that's okay. So I I know the dude. It's the same dude who distributes Laura's wine. Right? Laura Katena. Right? Yeah. Laura Katena. So I'll reach out to him and see how we can get hold of your wines. Getting back to Shaawan's question, her question is the following. It's a little bit long. Okay. What does the study in France? So she's been stalking you in South Africa, and then the six years wine, wine maker experience in the South hemisphere, southern hemisphere. Yep. Gave you, what are the things that you bought back to your winery in Japan? Very interesting question. Yeah. Very thoughts. She's very thoughts. It's the homeless question. Yeah. Yeah. It's a We have ten minutes, so maybe you can you can you can try to, you know, explain less in less than ten minutes. I spent three years in France, so I learned a lot. And especially, I I met professor, unida Boulger, unfortunately, he passed away a few years ago. I think he learned a lot from him, and we, talked a lot about Kosheels. He gave me a lot of ideas on making, quality kosher wine. So it was an amazing experience to me, and I meant very good friends in France, and they are, from Chateau or they are born in the Chateau or wineries, like, same situation as me. It was a very good opportunity to meet them. Also, South Africa is completely different. I was an ex and steering to South Africa a very short time, but I learned a lot. It's completely different from the way of thinking, how can I see the approach to make wine? It's very different from France. To me. So I learned a lot from the winemakers in South Africa, and the professors from South Africa, totally different, especially the big culture, the way of thinking and the approach to make quality wine is very different. I'm very happy to learn old wine making and new wild wine making. So I was I learned a lot. And for the thousand vintages in southern hemisphere, I did some vintages in Cajena Sabata for example. Oh, you did? Yeah. Two vintages. Because A twenty with louder. Yeah. With louder. Yeah. Oh, I'm jealous. I don't ever inspire me to do harvest. I wonder why. Yeah. She's the queen of my bed. So I was very inspired by her, and I learned a lot. There. So every iteration has their own know how. So I respect every method of my making a little bit of uploads you're making, what, my making a bit of gold. Yeah. I respect all the countries It's quite amazing experience. You know, Ayana, I have to be honest. I didn't really study your winery very well till, like, this morning last night. And I was going through your feed. I'm so fascinated. You know? Because you seem to do everything in a very artisanal way. You know, even like, I have actually never seen anybody doing destemming just manually. Oh. Can you do all of your wines, like, in this manner? Tell me a little bit about the philosophy of your winery and how many people they are. Wine to wine business forum. Everything you need to get ahead in the world of wine. Supersize your business network. Share business ideas with the biggest voices in the industry. Join us in Verona on November thirteen to fourteen twenty twenty three. Tickets available now at point wine dot net. Described to me your typical day during, you know, wine making period. Oh, okay. Irving. Oh, irving. So we missed you too. I guess that wasn't meant for me, but I missed you too. Oh, Ivan. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's he's, like, Italian White and Basero. Yeah. He's a Italian wine expert, actually, which is not Okay. Above everybody. He's great. And he's Yeah. He's great. Yeah. Yeah. He says he misses me. He misses you. He misses Yacopa. He misses Rebecca, but That's fine. That I looked at. I I still miss it. Thanks, serving. That's a lot. Yeah. I've been I've been actually, said to me, Kosier reveals the signature delicacy of the Japanese culture I like that. I like that. Yeah. That's why he's an expert. He's so smart. Yeah. He also can do poetry. Like, I can't do that poetry stuff. You know what I mean? So to be straight. I'm just so busy. We have six more minutes. Okay. Would you please tell us about your winery and kind of like the philosophy, what kind of winemaker winemaking approach? You do. Give me the nuts and bolts of your, you know, your winery. Yeah. We, we are like, very, as you said, our artisanal way of winemaking. And sometimes we do their distilling manually and all the, of course, all the grapes are handpicked. And with very small cases, like, ten kilo of small baskets. And then, we sometimes we do the night harvest, and then we press the grapes, directory from there, how to save the vineyard? What is the elevation? How high are? Elevation, vineyards, four hundred meter to seven hundred meter. So quite high, mountain. And where do you which type of grapes do you put on four hundred and seven hundred? Because you're you're tasting today come from four hundred meter of altitude. Some other wines come from seven hundred meter attitudes. It's depending on the vineyard we separate the line. So as you said, I'm very, happy to work with Japanese craftsmanship, like attention to details. Very precise while I'm making. I think it's quite Japanese. And I see a lot of women in your instant feed at least in your pictures. Are they mostly women working the fields or the hand harvesting or are there actually men or you just kill them all? Like you hid them all. Like, did you do away with the man? What's going on with that in your in your area? Yeah. In my one, already, they're, mostly our staff, colleagues, man. But they are men. Oh, you just don't want to show them. Okay. I get it. I understand. I get it. But I quite like for the hardest time, I hire some, goals because Japanese goals are best. They have very good sensitivities, but that's interesting. You distend manually everything. Not everything, but sometimes. Yeah. Oh, okay. Yeah. Because I thought that was so beautiful because you have one video. You guys, you know, for the audience. First of all, you know, of course, I get distracted. But first of all, I think we have the largest view, like, with you, like, what we went over one hundred, which is a lot because if you go through wine spectator, you know, they have, like, half a million followers, and they only have, like, hundred and forty view connected at the same time. So you're, like, huge. Now you are the winner, Openball Stevie, of Insta Live, because Lara was pretty big, but you went way over. So I'm just saying congratulations. But I'm really fascinated about where you are located. Okay? So can you tell us a little bit more about just like, you know, the temperature? I know you said, you know, the climate, the difference between, like, the elevations. I think like you said something about you did an experiment with drainage. Can you tell us a little bit about that? To make a quality line in Japan, we need a very good drainage. So we use a special, drainage techniques. We use rigid system. So we make regions eighty centimeter up from the ground for the drainage. So the better drainage. So, I think sunshine hours, good drainage, and Japanese craftmanship is the three kids to make quality wine in Japan. What kind of soil do you have? It's diverse here. Mostly clay, some vineyards have clay, a global soils. One vineyard has granite soil, and one means, volcanic soil. So, like, it's a, yeah, it's quite diverse. I think Good question. So Rebecca, of course, the smart one out of the lot she asked. Yeah. Do you benefit differently according to different soils? Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. This is my yeah. Yeah. It's my one of my favorite things to do. Of this wine, of course, is somebody was asking the alcohol. Normally, eleven to twelve percent. Yes. You're very low. Yeah. Very low. Yeah. They're very healthy. Oh, my god. I have one fan, Patricia. I love you. She said, you rock stevie. So I have one person who likes me. Okay. Yeah. I love you too. Oh. Thank you, Tiana. Thank you so much. I can't get any better than that. So I think I'm going to have to hang because maybe you don't wanna say anything nice anymore. So listen, Ayana. Thank you so much for sharing your wine with us, and we will make sure. If just ping ping Ayana, on her Insta if you need more information about her wine. We really enjoyed your wine. We will be doing a tasting note, and we will be publishing it and be sharing with everybody. Okay? I really, really hope to see you soon, Ayana. Yeah. I hope so. I don't think we have time to talk about COVID and all of that stuff, but, I really hope to see you soon. He did get out to Ayana. Your acuity. You have a family. I think you have a bad maybe we can get this love connection going here, lies. Okay. Alright. Well, thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you for joining us on another installment of On The Road Edition, hosted by Stev Kim. Join her again next week for more interesting content in the Italian wine scene. You can also find us at Italian wine podcast dot com or wherever you get your pods, you can also check out our YouTube channel, mama jumbo shrimp to watch these interviews and the footage captured of each location.