Wine pairing: Riposte “The Dagger” Pinot Noir, 2021, Adelaide Hills (Australia)

This has been an interesting bottle. It’s only a ’21 but my concern was that it was already past its prime, owing to the fact that it receives no oak before bottling. And indeed when I opened it there was a somewhat “stewed” quality to the (ample) fruit and a bit of rust on the edges. This is a Pinot designed to be drunk young and fresh, bursting with red fruit and florals. But a day of rest has transformed it considerably, which is somewhat counter-intuitive. The fruit is much cleaner now, though deeper and darker than it would have been two or three years ago. It’s an elegant Pinot, silky and soft, with a lot of spice and a hint of espresso on the finish.

Kami no Shizuku is not transformed. Which is perfectly fine, as it goes down smoothly as-is. But it remains a frustration to me that the existence of white wine – and non-French wine – is almost ignored. I was so shocked to get a Rousanne-driven cameo – the sublime Perrin Chateauneuf du Pape Vieilles Vignes – in the B-part that I almost fell out of my chair. But then it was right back to reds, as the Third Apostle is clearly one. And France too of course – “if it weren’t a French wine there would have been something in the description hinting as much”. It’s not as if you can’t buy wines from other place here, and white too – this tunnel vision is rather puzzling, I have to say.

Much of the theme here is how wine appeals to people of an artistic temperament in many fields, which is something I’ve very much found to be true. Film directors, architects, mystery novelists – wine is what unites them. We get a new boy at the office – Kido-san. He’s a punk who got sick on Mad Dog 20/20 or some such plonk and swore off wine, which makes his arrive at the wine division a bit problematic. Kanzaki is put in charge of his vineducation, which eventually leads to a tasting of Romanée-Conti at the opening of the fancy supermarket chain. And yeah, that will convert the heathens pretty fast.

As part of the quest for the Third Apostle – for which “nostalgia” seems to be the key – Shizuku and Miyabi head to the chateau where some of his father’s collection is stored, and they get a look at it despite Yutaka’s will having forbidden it. There Shizuku finds some of the tasting notes his father placed on the bottles, which is certainly nostalgic. Meanwhile Issei has flown Loulan in from China and hired her as his assistant, and while I’m sure her talents can indeed be useful for him, I’m with his lawyer (or whoever she is) – there’s a lot more going on there.

Driven by the realization that he’s never tasted a truly great wine at its peak, Shizuku goes on the hunt. Robert spurns him but sends him to talk to Kurokawa Akira, a famous filmmaker and wine lover who was a friend of Yutaka. And does he ever come through – a 1970 Petrus which is indeed, even at 30, at the very start of its peak. This is by any standards one of the most legendary bottles of any wine in existence, one far beyond the scope of anything I’ll taste (never mind for free). But it’s that Vielles Vignes Chateauneuf du Pape that sets Shizuku off in the right direction for the apostle.

We know that will fail of course, as most of the episode is actually a flashback. This was really the first time I’ve had a strong sense of just how much this adaptation is rushing things, though the episode was still thoroughly enjoyable. It’s interesting that both Issei and Shizuku apparently went off-track chasing this one down – what happened, exactly? Are they both simply true young to understand the power of nostalgia? I’m also interested to find out why the anime (and perhaps the manga) chose to tell us that beforehand.