Liquor

October 2003

Despite higher prices reflecting the strong euro, wine merchants in Japan predict that imports of French Beaujolais nouveau wines will set a new record for volume. Japan's total orders are poised to surpass last year's record of roughly 580,000 cases to reach at least 600,000 cases. Each case contains 12 750ml bottles. Based on wholesale orders to date, industry giant Suntory Ltd. plans to import 215,000 cases, a 16.2% increase on the year. Second-ranked Mercian Corp. will raise its orders by 2.5% on the year to 82,000 cases, while Asahi Breweries Ltd. expects to order 75,000 cases, a 5.6% rise. Importers are upping prices by 5-10% to reflect the euro's appreciation, but with the heat wave (in France) over the summer having produced superb grapes, orders from distributors have jumped in anticipation of an extraordinary vintage.　(October 29, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)

Combined shipments of beer and low-malt happoshu in September rose 2.5% from a year earlier for the first year-on-year gain in five months, according to data released by Japan's five top brewers. Beer and happoshu shipments by Kirin Brewery Co., Asahi Breweries Ltd., Sapporo Holdings Ltd., Suntory Ltd. And Orion Breweries Ltd. Totaled 538,465 kiloliters in September. The shipments recovered as the weather turned hotter in the first half of September after an unusually cool summer, stimulating demand for beer and happoshu. September beer shipments fell 0.7% from a year earlier to 316,059 kiloliters, down for the 42nd month in a row, but the margin of decline narrowed from the 10.6% drop in august. Demand was particularly strong from restaurants and bars. Happoshu shipments in September rose 7.3% to 222,406 kiloliters, up for the first time in five months. Shipment had previously been sluggish since the May 1 tax hike on happoshu. By maker, beer shipments by Asahi Breweries rose 1.5%, up for the first time in 33 months, with combined shipments of beer and happoshu gaining 11.3%. (October 11, Kyodo News, the Japan Times)

Japanese brewers are turning to overseas markets as a new revenue source since the domestic market has become saturated, with Suntory Ltd. aiming for a 70% jump in sales and Kirin Brewery Co. seeking for a 10% hike. Suntory, which currently operates three breweries in the coastal area of China, is considering acquiring breweries in inland regions in 2004 and afterward to boost its sales in the country to 500,000kl by 2006, up 70% from 2002. Although the overseas sales increase target is a modest 10% for Kirin in the same four-year period, the target in terms of volume, at 2.6 million kiloliters, is much larger than Suntory's. Kirin hopes that the business cooperation arrangements with its group member brewers will help the company hit the sales target. Kirin has seen its overseas sales of beer increasing 2-3% in recent years. Asahi Breweries Ltd., the largest brewer in Japan, plans to raise its overseas beer sales from 530,000kl in 2002 to 600,000kl by 2006. (October 8, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)

Japanese winemaker runs vineyard in France. At a wine fair held in Anjou in the Loire district of France in February, a Michelin one-star restaurant in Nantes decided to purchase wine made by Junko Arai, a 42-year-old Japanese woman making wine from grapes grown on her farm in the area. Although wine has indeed become a more common household beverage in Japan, Japanese citizens like Arai who make wine in France are quite unusual. Arai started her wine career by trying to expand her knowledge on the beverage. She opened a wine class in Tokyo in 1990, soon after quitting a wine coordinator job at Sapporo Breweries Ltd. The class was the first of its kind in Japan designed for general consumers. In 1996, she went to Bordeaux to study winemaking, an experience which changed her views on wine. Equipped with a new point of view, she later came back to Japan to open a wine restaurant, one that attaches importance to combining wine into dishes. At the eatery, one of her duties was wine procurement, and one supplier at the time suggested that she buy an 8-hectare vineyard in Loire, France, to make her own wine. She had little hesitation in becoming a wine producer at that time. Once she actually started taking actions for that purpose, she faced a number of barriers in entering that traditional French industry, including the requirements of submitting various documents to a local administrative office. Arai managed to clear these hurdles, thanks largely to the wide personal network she built while arranging wine procurement at her restaurant. Arai sticks to a policy of using no agrochemicals in growing grapes. As she tries to never succumb to the temptation of resorting to easier methods of making grapes and wine, the whole process of her wine production requires a substantial amount of costs and painstaking efforts. Her dream now is to increase the popularity of chemical-free wine in Japan. The wine she has produced is currently being taken out of barrels and bottled in France. It will be put on sale at wine shops in Paris this autumn, before being brought to Japan in November. (October 7, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun)