This is a story about a firebrand motocross racer/competitive bass fisherman turned genius grape farmer and a young, independent, single-mother maverick wine brewer who originally wanted to be a stand-up comedian. Against all odds they meet and start creating the highest-quality wines. Few years into making wine, world-renowned sommelier Gerard Basset happen to taste their wines, tweets the world about it (which is, let's face it, as close to breaking the internet that Japanese wine world can get) and the rest is history.
Originally a table-grape producing farm, Kisvin CEO Ogihara slowly started planting wine grapes when he took over his family business in 2002. He started a wine research group, Team Kisvin, to study wine grape farming in 2005, and in 2013 began making wine and founded Kisvin Winery. Two things set Kisvin Wine apart from other wineries:
1. Because they work with the idea that the best grapes make the wine-making process easy and simple, they are beyond hands-on with their grapes. The quality of their grapes is top-notch, placing them far ahead of the pack even before the race begins. Every member of their staff, including Saito, the wine brewer, are in the fields closely checking in on the grapes' growth. Coming from a table grape background gives Kisvin an advantage. They, like the Japanese do with their precious table grapes, individually cover every single grape bunch with their own little umbrellas by hand, which the winery worked with a factory to design and craft, to shield them from direct sunlight and morning dew. Saito also asks Ogihara to produce grapes with small fruit. Smaller grapes have a larger skin to fruit ratio, allowing more of the umami on the skin into the juices; even a 1mm difference in the circumference greatly changes the amount of umami. It also makes it easier to separate the fruit from the skin after harvesting. They won't share their secret to how they achieve this, but Ogihara says table grapes are made to be large and firm, so he does the exact opposite for his wine grapes to produce these smaller grapes.
2. They make what they want to drink. Most wine makers grow grapes that are easiest for the climate and environment. But CEO Ogihara says there are no such thing as an easy grape to grow anyway, and the only things one need to grow grapes are passion and will, so they might as well grow grapes of wines they want to drink.
