Fukuoka, Kyushu
I made a couple of visits to natural-wine venues in Fukuoka, I had found some addresses on the web but ended to visit other place after my friend Alex from VineyardGate sent me a tip about one place, just telling me to look for @minnano_kochang. I did my part of research on the web and ended up finding the location and more exciting details through the tabelog page devoted to this venue... Comments of visitors were also interesting and helped me really find the door, as in Japan, many bars are not directly on the street level but are actually appartments either in upper stories with no particular sign on the door, or also in basements. In short, when you stroll in a street lined with restaurants in Japan, you miss possibly 50 % or more of the operating bars, they're somewhere up there in buildings and you have to know by word of mouth.
By precaution I first came there during the day, I indeed located the building but failed to find the door as it was before further web research where I stumbled on comments pointing to this back door. When I came back in the evening, the people inside were surprised to see me, a foreigner coming for the first time to what almost looks like a secret bar is certainly unusual. Here is the Google Map page for the address, don't look for the street view of the building, it's a new building on what was then a parking lot.
But my real chance here was that at the time of my visit, Michael, an expat from NY City was there as well, as the owner was not speaking fluent English (not to say that my own mastery of the Japanese language was nil). Michael manages a small IT consultancy business in Fukuoka, he settled there just before the pandemic and was very happy of the move, he says returning to New York after these few years in Fukuoka is very difficult even if he loves his hometown town and his friends there. Whatever, he heard about the place from an acquaintance and loves it, here you not only have natural wine nut artisan sake and other rare products, plus Hsiao serves beautiful things to eat to go with.
The place is really an appartment, it's what the Japanese call an appartment for singles, meaning with one room (the whole building has only such small appartments from what I read). I asked Hsiao if it's difficult to open such a bar, I mean from the administrative point, the authorizations and so on, and she said no, it's very simple. That's another contrast with what we have in France I think, the Japanese authorities are business friendly, even when dealing with alcoholic-drinks businesses. In France you also must pay a tax named Licence III or Licence IV which costs around 10 000 €, which is a deterrent when you open a small venue with a modest turnover.
I had this cuvée, Tomo Rouge, from Domaine Atsushi Suzuki in Hokkaido, a delicious and easy drinking red, round and fruity. This is a 5,5-hectare estate which was purchased, they seem to do permaculture there (no plowing), use mainly Bordeaux mix but also other chemicals when disease pressure is too high but some of their parcels don't get any of the latter. Varieties grown on their surface are Zweigelt, Kerner, Müller-Thurgau, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Gewurztraminer.
The next wine I tried was Bonjour by Valentin Vallès (a Vin de France 2021) in the Rhône, a fresh, light-alcohol treat, no added sulfites, unfiltered. Valentin Vallès worked with Eric Pfifferling at the beginning which is enough to make you salivate and buy blind I think. Read here Aaron's piece about him. Speaking of the prices, I paid a total of 3400 Yen (about 23 €) for my two glasses.
Michael offered me the possibility to try an other nature-wine venue in the neighborhood, and I was happy of his proposal. He just moved from the Tenjin area (which is more on offices and department stores) to this maze of narrow streets lined with nice little restaurants and he can easily walk to these places. The place's name is Wine Bar Tasogare, it is here is the tabelog page for more info, pictures and reviews. My own pictures are so-so because it was too intimate a venue for me to dare take pictures too openly. Patrons looked a bit older and mainstream Japanese, but given what they serve here the customers here are demanding and interested in rare, quality products. Here is the Google Maps pafe of Tasugare for directions.
The venue is also set in a small appartment and it was upstairs if I remember. As you see, pretty tiny but cozy room. You can sit at small tables in the room or stay at the bar which was just fine as well, you have a better look at the bottles from there.
My choice was also for a Japanese natural wine, and I chose to have a red. Man, that was good too ! The name of this cuvée is Suzu Rouge. I paid 1700 Yen for the glass which is in line with the prices at the first wine bar I visited. there are quite a good number of natural wine shops and bars or restaurants in Fukuoka, so if you do some research you'll find exciting other venues.
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