François Dumas, Wine Importer in Japan

François Dumas Roppongi, Tokyo
We had the chance recently to meet François Dumas, who is possibly the first to have set up a wine-import business in Japan centered around French natural wines : his company Le Vin Nature is entirely centered on the distribution of (mostly French) natural wines. His story is passionating because more than business, his career is about passion and intuition moves. First, he is a trained architect in France, then he organized music shows in Japan and ended up setting up a wine import business...
François came to Japan first 1979, he was a trained architect and he came for a one-year study on traditional Japanese houses, from the far north to the Japanese south. Back in France in 1981 he worked for the newly independant radio network Radio Nova, this was the time the World-Music was very strong in France and the new freedom in the radio waves was very exciting. Then he went back to Japan and organized music shows there with African musicians as well as people like Gainsbourg, Charles Trenet, Jane Birkin, Marianne Faithful, Maceo Parker and others. Serge Gainsbourg was not known in Japan then and he has become sort of a cult singer since. When the techno-music era began, he decided to stop this job, leave the business to his associates and begin do something with wine, even though he remained the president of this concert business (Highlife international) until 2006. So, in 1997, he decided to explore another field and gather a list of organic and biodynamic wineries and import their wines here. There weren't any specialized import of natural wines here then, the wine lansdcape was almost limited to Bordeaux which he felt was boring. From the start he had the wines of Overnoy, Chateau Le Puy (before it turned organic and discovered how not to use SO2, he adds) and many others.

Pouring a wine blind François Dumas arrived late at Shonzui, he probably knows the place and the staff well because nobody paid attention as he walked in all the while trying the arduous job of opening a bottle still wrapped in its paper bag. Watching him coming to our table his hands in the bag, I soon understood the trick : he wanted to have us drink a wine blind. Almost before saying hello, he poured the wine so we could try to guess. I didn't guess right but this wine was just terrific. I was quite sure it was one of Pfifferling wines, there was this refined texture, this drinkability and balance. B. thought it was a Northern Rhone if I remember, we were both stunned by this wine. He took later the paper off : it was from Jacques Broustet's Chateau Lamery in Bordeaux, a table-wine cuvée named Autrement, vintage 2009. excellent wine indeed, funny that it was brought by François Dumas who began to import probably all French regions here but Bordeaux... Here's the François Dumas' Japanese page on the wine. Chateau Lamery is a very atypical winery in the bordeaux region. This 2,8-hectare estate (of which 2,6 hectares in red) is organic, the wine is vinified without any additives, on its lees and raised 2 years, no topping up and no racking for 9 months. No fining and no filtration at bottling, no SO2 added. Varieties : Cab franc, Cab sauvignon, Merlot, Malbec. Just excellent, delicious. Do I need to go to : first, a natural-wine bar - second : to Tokyo to rediscover Bordeaux ? I know I'm a snob, but that is a bit over the top. And this wine costs only 15 € in France, that's quite a deal. François Dumas Asked how the Japanese amateur was receptive to the natural wines, François Dumas says first that Japan is very open in terms of wines, and they can make their choice among the wines coming from the major producing countries. He adds that when they tasted these wines made on a very traditional and non-interventionist way, it somehow spoke to them, they liked them immediately. He adds that the quality of a product, be it for food or wine, is very important for the japanese, it's very central. the sulfur-free wine was a hit here, he says, because it fits into the love of the Japanese for purity and products breathing purity. Also he adds, when they get into something, they're going very deep into it and learn everything on the hows & why of this thing. I guess it strengthened their interest when they knew the hidden sides of the winemaking, we see quite a few of them in France who have accumulated more expertise in the field of tasting and winemaking than most of us Frenchmen could dream of. The guy behind Aux Amis des Vins, Vinpicoeur and Brasserie Aux Amis, he says [Hiroto Maruyama], is among this band of knowledgeable Japanese travellers who have been visiting many winemakers and small wine farms and now sell or serve their wines here in Tokyo.
At the beginning, Katsuyama-san for example, the present owner of Shonzui (the wine bar), who was then a buyer for National, imported lots of these wines. He opened this restaurant and he and François had lots of wine sold here. The sales of natural wines reached such high numbers in Japan from these early years, he says, that without Japan then, producers like Puzelat would have had trouble staying afloat : Japan was buying nearly 80 % of his production, he says. I remember myself actually having heard Thierry Puzelat telling me that Japan was buying 75 % of the French natural wines, I don't know if it's still true today in terms of share, but it certainly was a few years from now, when the rest of the world hadn't caught on with natural wine yet. François Dumas says that Japan also rescued Mark Angeli at the time he had some trouble with Michel Bettane, buying his wines when sales where down in France Import website vinbio.co.jp (as of july 2006) So, let's backpedal to the beginning, François Dumas set up an import house named Vin Bio in 1997, and the business lasted until 2006, after which he opened Le Vin Nature. Through this initial importation venture and with the websire's url vinbio.co.jp, you could find a good choice of artisanal wines and diverse related info. The welcome page pictured above dates from july 2006, and the portrait on the top is his François Dumas'. Mondovino (insert in the lower end of the homepage) was showing around in Japan too at this time, heating the debate about key wine issues, and raising the interest for wines and the different philosophies (or lackthereof) behind them.
As the buyer for VinBio, François Dumas distributed from 1997 the best players of the natural-wine team. A few key restaurants like Shonzui or A.O.C. Yoyogi helped familiarize the Japanese wine amateurs with these wines, a little bit like a handful of key wine bars in Paris opened a breach into the locked wine distribution, reaching out to a larger potential audience who was until then unaware of these wines. Here is the content of a web page dating from 2001 and listing the wines that were sold by Vinbio.co.jp. You have a nice list of producers there, considering that 2001 was still the early stage of natural-wine export, with vintages we'd be happy to drink and see how they taste now.
Le Vin Nature was his second import company, taking the succession of VinBio, with the same wine philosophy.

But François Dumas had started another venture in parallel with his beginnings in the import business : at about the same period he opened VinBio, he opened a restaurant with friends, A.O.C. Yoyogi, where he could pour these wines and make them known. He jokes that having a restaurant is perfect when you're an importer because when you have certain cuvées that are difficult to sell for some reason, you can use the restaurant to speed the sale. He says that in addition, Tokyo is a city where there's a lot of food & restaurant press and media, and your wines will get a good coverage as long as you have a good chef and a restaurant which thrives. You can see on this page thewine list of A.O.C. Yoyogi (the page probably hasn't been updated since 2002). A natural-wine event in Tokyo (Festivin 2011) François Dumas set up with a handful of people what I think is the first natural-wine tasting fair in Tokyo, one that is open to all the wine importers who want to take part, and this event reflects his many talents as it has good music all along with live groups performing. This, with also several stands to eat good artisan food help give the event a festive mood. François Dumas says that he regrets that most wine-tasting events are way too serious and boringly tailored for professionals who taste hundreds of wines in the shortest time possible. Thinking to La Dive Bouteille for example, he says that even if he likes the pholosophy and the wines there, he wouldn't invite his sister to come along because it's way too austere for a non-geek to feel comfortable there. He really designed Festivin so that it's a place where you'll feel well, wine professional or not. The other people behind this tasting event are Katsuyama-san (Shonzui's owner), Racines (another importer) and Vinscoeur (yet another importer). This tasting is rightly named Festivin, the last one took place near Ebisu, further south-east from Shibuya along the Yamanote line. François Dumas brought his expertise with musicians and shows, using his connection to find the artists.
For a fee of 6000 Yen (54 € or 72 USD) the attendees have the good music, they can meet some vignerons, and they can taste as many wines as they want/can among 200 natural wines and during a whole day. Even if 55 € seems expensive by French standards, tastings being free most of the time in France, by Tokyo's standards it's a very good deal, especially if you add the music entertainment side.
If most of the wines are French at Festivin, there are also a few wines from Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Germany, Austria, Greece, Croatia... and yes, Japan, which is also beginning to have its own natural-wine production, particularly Beau Paysage, Chateau Lumière and Coco Farm, where, you may remember, Kenji Hodjson had his training before landing in Anjou. Festivin took place shortly after the yearly launch of the Beaujolais Nouveau, but like Time Out Tokyo wrote wisely, Granted, the launch of 2011's Beaujolais Nouveau is guaranteed to hog the media spotlight this month, but in-the-known oenophiles would do better to wait an extra ten days and head to Festivin instead.

Speaking with Shigeno They will have this Festivin tasting event every november. The first year (2010) they had 1000 people, in 2011 they made 1300 and this year they expect 2000. All the importers working in Japan can apply their wines, the only rule being the one of the Association des Vins Naturels : organic or biodynamic farming, no additives and SO2 doses within the very low admittance of the AVN chart, which is :
__for reds & sparklings after bottling : zero to 30 mg/l total SO2 maximum
__for whites : zero to 40 mg/l total SO2 maximum (this all, whatever the level of residual sugar).
All the Japanese importers of natural wine take part, the organizers don't ask the importers to bring the bottles for free, Festivin pays for these bottles, even if at about the cost price, that's also why the fee is this high (in France it's free most of the time because the vigneron gives away the bottles). Some vignerons come in person at Festivin, the first year Mark Angeli and Guy Bossard, last year it was Pierre Frick and Kenji Hodgson, and next year they hope Virginie of Causses Marine will be there. A great wine Asked how he decides to add a vigneron to his portfolio, François dumas says that he needs if possible to taste the wines from different vintages. And the other must-do thing is go see the vines : he says that the vines don't lie, the vineyard help see what is behind the wine. the chai/cellar part is important too, he says it's all part of the whole picture. I understand that he is going regularly in the French regions as well as elsewhere in Europe to visit his winemakers. He also imports cider grom Normandy, Calvados spirit, and Cognac.

Le Vin Nature info [at] le-vin-nature [dot] net www.le-vin-nature.net Wine Portfolio

Festivin 2012

Comments

[Caleb Nelson]

Hello,

my name is Caleb Nelson and I am currently in Japan marketing wine from Michigan. Our wine is made directly on the 45 N parallel surrounded by some of the largest and most magnificent fresh water lakes in the world. Most of the best wine from Michigan comes from the Traverse City region, known to be the cherry capital of the world. Michigan has been making wine for some time now but within the last few years our market for wine has been flourishing. We are already among the top wine states in America and claiming several international Awards. Honors include multiple gold and double gold/ best of class at competitions such as the International Eastern Wine Competition; which has generated a respectable amount of fame. We have many variants of wine but particularly known for wines such as Riesling, Gamay Noir, Pinot Grigio and Ice Wine. We also have many selections of cherry wine such as Cherry Sparkling Wine, Cherry Riesling and Cherry Wine.

Our confidence in our product is inherited through a high consumer satisfaction and a growing loyal base of end user purchases. Our wine is world class and often praised for bringing "something new" to a mature world of wine with an appreciation for the forerunners and predecessors of the industry.

We are currently looking for an importer in Japan and would be more than happy to meet and give a sampling of the wine in which we proudly represent.

It would be advantageous to take part of this burgeoning market opportunity.

Your time and consideration is highly appreciated. We look forward to doing business with you.

Please pardon my inability to locate a proper email on this website.

Respectfully,

Caleb Nelson
Grand Traverse Wine International
[email protected]