I like watching professional baseball.
It's a long way from my house to Nagoya Dome, or rather, it has been renamed as Vantelin Dome Nagoya from this season! It must be good for muscle pain! But it's pretty close, so in the summer I go to the Dome almost like I'm going to a beer garden.
However, recently I noticed that something was missing from the fun Beer Dome Garden (actually, I had noticed it for quite some time, but had given up, thinking it couldn't be helped).
That's wine .
If you're thinking, "Oh, we're talking about wine again," you'd be right.
After all, this is a blog by a sommelier, a term used to describe a crazy person who connects everything that happens in the world to wine (or maybe not).
A bang and a home run! A gulp of draft beer!
There's no doubt that it's an amazing combination, but to be honest, it's a bit on the classical side.
As you know, beer consumption in Japan is declining.
It's a 60 % decrease over the last 30 years.
In contrast, wine sales have tripled over the past 30 years.
According to data from the National Tax Agency for 2019, annual beer consumption was 2,232,000 kL, and wine (including sweet fruit liquor) consumption was 362,000 kL.
The ratio is about 6 to 1. People also drink quite a bit of wine.
I get the feeling that most of the people who come to the stadium are beer drinkers (and there are probably many who also drink highballs and sours), but I think the data shows that there are also a significant number of wine drinkers like me (although I am the type who first joins the beer party and then switches to wine).
But they don't sell wine. Maybe they do, but I've never seen it.
It's a waste.
After all, wine lovers have a tendency to flock to places where good wine is available.
There's no way you can let that habit slip away, Mr. Dome.
"Let's go see a professional baseball game."
"Well, I don't know anything about the players."
"Don't worry. We have some good wine, so it'll be fun."
"Really?! Then I'll go!"
This happens to many of the wine lovers who are in senior positions. From my experience, this is quite the case.
Every autumn, I set up a stall called the "Open-Air Wine Bar" at a festival held in a park in the heart of Nagoya, where people could drink about 20 types of wine by the glass.
What I realized was that if you serve delicious wine, there's a good chance that customers will come back to buy it again.
"Here we go again!"
"Last time I made it white, this time I'll make it red!"
"They have rosé too, I'll have to come again!"
There were a lot of people like that.
Wine drinkers do n't want to let anything other than wine take up their daily alcohol intake , so they end up reaching for wine again and again.
They may not respond well at first when you put wine on the table. But once they know that you can drink delicious wine, the stadium for them is already a wine bar with people pitching and hitting balls .
And what is important here is "snacks." Yes, they also contribute greatly to the sales of snacks.
After all, wine is a drink that makes you feel much happier when paired with snacks.
For example, a pairing set of Nagoya's specialty miso kushikatsu and red wine . Ah, I have a feeling it'll be a big hit.
A pairing set of doteni and red wine . This will also sell. Kibun's chikuwa oden with white wine . Not bad.
The container is a disposable wine glass-shaped plastic cup. There are many commercially available ones that fit into the drink holder. You can also put the team logo on it.
The size of the wine is a bit large if it is a full bottle, so a half bottle is better. If several people can drink it, it is easy to make a flow from white to red. If you sell it by the bottle, you don't have to manage the freshness like you do if you sell it by the glass. It's easy because you can just put it in the refrigerator in the store.
Ah, the delusions never stop.
While we're at it, let's write down the brand name.
Dome has relationships with the four major beer makers. Realistically speaking, if we were to purchase wine, it would have to come from one of those breweries. So, based on that, we came up with a concrete plan.
- Kirin → Group company Mercian to Chateau Mercian (Japan) Yamanashi Koshu <half bottle>
- Sapporo → Santa Rita (Chile) 120 (Siento Beinte) Cabernet Sauvignon <half bottle>
- Suntory → From group company Suntory Wine International , Freixenet (Spain) Cordon Negro <half bottle>
- Asahi → Group company Enoteca Sileni (New Zealand) Sauvignon Blanc <half bottle>
I'll include NZ too. No gaps.
I'm sure that all of you wine lovers at the executive level will have strong objections to the above brands. You must be thinking that you could come up with a better suggestion. That's right. If you have an idea, please let me know.
So, what do you think, everyone involved with the Dome?
If you would consider this, we would gather the opinions of our party members and come up with a proposal that would be the ultimate wine party magnet .
This week's wine and snacks
SOUTHERN CROSS HAWKES BAY CHARDONNAY 2013
Southern Cross Hawkes Bay Chardonnay 2013
When it comes to New Zealand wines, older vintages are rarely available in Japan, as many wines taste better when drunk soon after release.
In the midst of all this, I came across a rare wine that was reasonably priced yet slightly old .
A very simple label with the Southern Cross as its motif. The location is the somewhat warm Hawke's Bay. The grapes are Chardonnay. When you drink it, it has a mellow taste with a slight oak-like nuance. The aroma of burnt caramel comes out of your nose.
The alcohol content is 12% , so it doesn't have the high alcohol feel that is common in New World beers, and it's well-balanced. Good!
I wondered how to pair it... That's it! I thought that the sweets I've been into lately might go well together, so I tried pairing them together.
Bourbon Baum Roll.
Okay, great success! My happiness level has sky rocketed .
I think Baumrohr is one of the easiest items to pair with white wine with oak flavors!
