Wine pairing: Les Charmes de Chateau Broustet Sauternes, France, 2015

I have a weakness for noble rot wines – the botrytis-shaped sweet whites of Bordeaux (most famously Sauternes). I love good sweet whites generally – late-harvest Rieslings and Muscats from both the old and new world, for example. Chateau Broustet is a venerable property in the Barsac area of Sauternes. They have a “second label”, as most Chateau de Bordeaux do (some even a third) – a more-affordable bottling than their signature release. This is golden nectar, with that wonderful combination of honeyed, white fruit sweetness and bracing acidity typical to good Sauternes. Perhaps my favorite part of the experience is how much the wine evolves in the glass as it slowly warms over time.

It strikes me that, generally speaking, white wines have been underrepresented in Kami no Shizuku so far. That may be in part a function of how radically the material is being rushed, or of how wine geeks tend to obsess over reds more than whites. They also tend to obsess over French wines more than others. This despite France being only a relatively small piece of the overall wine puzzle. Hey, my first three pairings for the series have been French – two whites, but French ones. The world of wine is huge and varied, and there’s no objective “best” wine or wines in the world. I happen to believe the absolute Everest wines do tend to be French, but it’s not the origin that offers the best QPR.

That’s where Honma Chousuke comes in. He’s just transferred over from the import foods division, and is the very definition of a ludicrous popinjay. Albeit one with a feigned Italian accent. Honma loves everything Italian, especially wine. He barges into the tasting the wine group is holding, immediately identifies the two Italians on the table and scores everything else a “0”. He then declares that the wine division will only be importing Italian wines (so is he like, in charge then?). All that’s ridiculous of course. And when he and Shizuku – enough of a neophyte to still believe wine’s borders are France’s – start to go at it, Kawamata-san suggests a contest to settle things.

This is fun, if utterly silly. In the first place this isn’t a contest and certainly not an “either-or” situation. What about California Zin or Oregon Pinot, Rioja or Chilean Malbec? But it’s true that Italy and France are the most famous wine producers in the world so it makes for a good spectacle. The format is three wines, all affordable – at the ¥1,000, ¥2,000, and ¥3,000 level. The company employees will taste and decide (on a Friday evening in the lobby). Honma-san will choose the Italians and Shizuku and Miyabi the Froggers. Game on.

This leads into the B-plot, where Shizuku-san meets the owner of the “La Famille” restaurant destroying his cellar contents. This backstory involves a restauranteur whose wife was the sommelier, and has passed away. He got trashed by a bad review from – naturally – Issei Tomine. This whole sidebar didn’t really work for me, honestly – I found it pretty far-fetched. But I did like that it ended up with Issei apologizing to the guy for his hatchet job, and crediting Shizuku for doing a good job with the Franco-Italian battle (using the wine the chef’s wife had purchased).

Theoretically you’d expect Italy to have an advantage in this sort of competition, and indeed that’s how it plays out at first. Italy has more good options at those price points (especially the first two). And Italian wines do tend to be more approachable and less demanding in terms of oxidation. Honma surely knows all this of course. Shizuku starts off with a peppery Rhone, then a silky Burgundy from Marsannay les Sampagny. Finally – going up against Italy’s much-loved Roggio del Filare –  a Left-Bank Bordeaux, Chateau Boyd-Cantenac from Margaux. A great wine – but on what planet can you get a Grand Cru Margaux for three thousand Yen??

This is all good fun to be sure, and it’s fitting that it ends in a tie (until Honma breaks it by voting for the Boyd-Cantenac). There’s room for both these countries wines in any decent portfolio, never mind all the others. And again, Issei even acknowledges Shizuku’s skill in telling a story with his picks. But again I ask – why six reds in six wines? You couldn’t stack a Sancerre against a Pinot Grigio from Alto Adige? So far Kami no Shizuku is really only telling half of wine’s story – but then, it’s probably telling even less than half of the manga’s.