Wine pairing: 2018 Chapelle D’Alienor (2nd wine of Canon-la-Gaffelière), St. Emillion, Bordeaux

Guilty as charged – I was drinking a French red as I watched this week’s episode. And as usual every named wine in the ep (the 2000 Domaine du Pégau Châteauneuf-du-Pape Cuvée da Capo was the apostle, but Richebourg gets an encore and the Enzo Ide Chateau Lucia – a St. Emillion itself – also got a plug) was a French red. Issei did make mention of an ice wine later in the episode, but even though at least 80% of ice wine (and eiswein) comes from white grapes, even here the image was of a red. It’s like a compulsion at this point.

Shizuku wins the Third Apostle rematch, putting him up 2-1. But it’s a hollow victory, as Issei – despite having correctly pegged the Domaine du Pégau – forfeits because he says he has no words to describe it. This is because the memories it brings of his stepfather are too intense, but for the record I quite liked Shizuku’s analogy. He describes the tannins in the wine as like a brief fight with a close friend, which makes the reconciliation that much sweeter.

Tannins in red wine are complicated, intrinsic. They’re the “grip” wine anoraks prattle on about. In the Alienor I was sipping, I was quite surprised at how firm the tannins were – as an 8 year-old second wine that’s 80% merlot (the other 20% is Cab Franc), I was expecting something softer. The answer is this wine needed a longer decant – more time for the oxygenation which eases that grip – and with it, the wine really soared. Oxygenation can never fully replace time, which seamlessly integrates the tannic structure into the identity of a wine in the glass. But with reds especially, it’s a crucial part of the equation and completely bottle-dependent.

In fact most of this episode focuses on Tomine and his wacky retinue. And I have to say it was one of the best of the series for me, overall. Issei is an interesting one here – not a villain, but somewhere between an anti-hero and an antagonist. I suspect the story, in the end, may be about he and Shizuku coming to have a fraternal relationship more than the battle between them. They both loved Yutaka and they both love wine – isn’t that more important than what divides them? Indeed reconciliation is a continuing theme here, as Issei is producing a dinner between two powerful CEOs who were friends in their youth in France but are now estranged.

This all revolves around Loulan, who Issei has now fallen for hard, and Saionji – who he’s basically thrown over for her. Saionji is some sort of exec in Issei’s business but also his sometime lover, and she’s none too pleased that his attentions have shifted to Loulan. So she engineers a scheme – roping in her assistant Kobayashi – to screw over the dinner and blame Loulan for it. To do she has Kobayashi suggest that Loulan take charge of the wine, then swaps out the Richebourg she chooses for one that’s been degraded by too-warm storage (it happens). The execs are pissed, and the two schemers manage to convince Loulan she’s screwed Issei over and should take the next plane back to China.

As ever with Kami no Shizuku, this gets pretty dramatic. Issei flies for Narita Kuukou and gets rear-ended by a truck; he then runs, bleeding, the rest of the way. He says he knows exactly what happened, which I would assume to mean Saionji really ought to be fired. In addition to being a shitty thing to do to Loulan she also jeopardized the relationship with a hugely important client. Issei has managed to save that relationship by using the Richebourg as a metaphor and saying it was all planned – just like the fractured friendship of the CEO’s, a damaged Richebourg can retain its former glory with some love and patience.

Finally, Kawarage-san – who seems to be low-key settling into a sort of surrogate-dad role with Shizuku – takes him to what’s effectively a sommelier yatai (food cart). Which is, I must say, a very cool idea. The guy’s menu is strictly omakase – he chooses three wines suited to the weather conditions (yes, that matters). This is where the Chsteau Lucia comes in – a wine Kawagoe loves, from a chateau that had a poor reputation but was resurrected in only three years. Kawagoe-san uses that as another metaphor I really love – the quality of experience is more important than the quantity. This is how Shizuku can catch up to Issei – and I think even more importantly, come to understand him.