{"id":801319,"date":"2019-11-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-11-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=374473"},"modified":"2019-11-14T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-11-14T07:00:00","slug":"wine-ink-kamo-no-shizuku-the-drops-of-god-wine-salon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/wine-ink-kamo-no-shizuku-the-drops-of-god-wine-salon\/","title":{"rendered":"Wine Ink: Kamo no Shizuku \u2014 The \u2018Drops of God\u2019 wine salon"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If you have a clue what the above story title refers to, you are in for a treat. If not, prepare to be enlightened.<\/p>\n

If I asked you what \u201cmanga\u201d is, would you guess maybe an obscure Moroccan grape? Or perhaps a bottle holding something more than 750 mls, but something less than a magnum? Or would you know that manga is a Japanese art form engaging comics and graphic novels to tell complicated, serialized stories about all things in the human experience?<\/p>\n

So what does that have to do with wine? Well, one of the most epic manga stories ever produced tells an intricate tale of intrigue and competition between two protagonists who must decipher and identify, through a series of clues and tastings, the world\u2019s most revered wines.<\/p>\n

Called \u201cDrops of God,\u201d the series of manga comics was created and curated by a brother-and-sister team, Shin and Yuko Kibayashi (under a pseudonym Tadashi Agi), from 2004 until 2014. It also became a Japanese television program in 2009 and recently Amazon\u2019s Comixology and Kodansha Comics digitally published all 44 volumes of \u201cDrops of God\u201d translated into English.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrops of God\u201d begins with the death of an esteemed Japanese wine critic, who has amassed a storied collection of wines of enormous value. His estranged son, Shizuku Kanzaki \u2014 who has made his career in the beer business, eschewing his father\u2019s passion \u2014 may be the likely heir. But dad has created a deeply devious way of deciding whether Shizuku, or Issei Toominea, a young, intense wine critic who had been mentored by the deceased, will take the inheritance. The two must compete to identify what the critic has determined to be the Twelve Apostles, the world\u2019s best case of wine, and a 13th wine, the baker\u2019s dozen if you will, which would be the \u201cDrops of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

What followed for 10 years, in hand-drawn form, was an obsessive hunt for and descriptions of wines from around the globe, as Shizuko and Issei competed to identify and describe the apostles. Wines like the 2000 Ch\u00e2teau Palmer (the second apostle) from Bordeaux or the 2003 Sine Qua Non The Inaugural (Eleven Confessions) Syrah Central Coast AVA (the seventh apostle) identified by Issei were dissected and analyzed in occasionally clinical, but mostly esoteric, heartfelt, emotional passages.<\/p>\n

But the new news came this last month.<\/p>\n

A \u201cDrops of God\u201d wine salon launched here in the U.S. with the idea of creating a unique \u201cparadigm-shattering wine experience\u201d for consumers. Essentially a wine club in \u201cDrops\u201d clothing, the idea is to engage members in the basic tenets of the story.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will be applying the same principles for the exploration of American wines we shared in the manga: Heaven, Earth, Man and Marriage,\u201d Shin and Yuko explained in a press release about the salon. \u201cIn \u2018The Drops of God,\u2019 Heaven represents the weather, and is a direct reference to the climate of a given geographical area. Earth refers to terroir, or soil and viticultural\/cultural practices and conditions. Man refers to winemaking and cellar practices, while Marriage refers to the marriage of wine and food.\u201d<\/p>\n

For $300 per quarter (aside from various discounts) members will receive six bottles each season of New World wines curated by Shin and Yuko, along with their Napa Valley-based business partner Peter Chiang, president of Bijou USA and vice president of Bijou Japan, the global joint venture established with the Kibayashis to \u201cbetter serve salon members in the United States, Japan and Taiwan.\u201d That comes out to $50 per bottle and is a steal for wines produced by the likes of Ashes & Diamonds, Calera, Failla, Matthiasson, Massican, Noria, Kanpai, Robert Sinskey, Marietta, and Scribe.<\/p>\n

But as crazy at it may seem, the wines are only one part of the \u201cDrops of God\u201d wine salon\u2019s potential. Members will be immersed in a culture and community that reveres wine, the places it comes from and the people who make it. There will be members-only live-streaming events, an app including chef Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s (yes, the one who threw out the first pitch at the World Series) and Rob Wilder\u2019s WineGame, and opportunities to explore one\u2019s own taste through the salon\u2019s innovative \u201cPalate Quiz.\u201d In late 2020, an inn in Calistoga dedicated to \u201cDrops of God\u201d is expected to open.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrops of God\u201d has generated an estimated 300-plus million impressions in television and manga form. Wineries featured in the print version have had to curtail releases of their wines due to excess demands placed by readers of the manga. At the release parties for the salons at chef Thomas Keller\u2019s Ad Hoc in Yountville and Chef Andr\u00e9s\u2019 The Bazaar in Los Angeles, hundreds gathered to taste wines, pay homage to Shin and Yuko and just be a part of the scene.<\/p>\n

If this is the next generation of wine clubs, I want in.<\/p>\n

Kelly J. Hayes lives in the soon-to-be-designated appellation of Old Snowmass. He can be reached at malibukj@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you have a clue what the above story title refers to, you are in for a treat. If not, prepare to be enlightened. If I asked you what \u201cmanga\u201d is, would you guess maybe an obscure Moroccan grape? Or perhaps a bottle holding something more than 750 mls, but something less than a magnum? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-801319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-01 15:35:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=801319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/801319\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=801319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=801319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=801319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}