[imagesource: Wikimedia Commons]

It’s nice to know that wine-makers have the blessing of Buddha in Japan.

On a hillside in Katsunuma in the city of Koshu, Yamanashi prefecture, Buddhist monk Tesshu Inoue spends his days contemplating the grape and praising wine.

He is based at Daizenji, nicknamed the “grape temple”, because of its deep-rooted links to the history of grape production in the country, as the head monk and also the honorary president of a vineyard cooperative.

Instead of the usual offerings to the spiritual leader at Daizenji, grapes and wine bottles are given.

“At other temples, they offer sake, but here, we offer wine. That’s unique in Japan,” said Inoue as he recounted the mythic origins of his temple to AFP, per Eyewitness News:

Wine in Japan has roots in healing, it turns out, and not just spiritual awakening:

In 718 AD, a famous Japanese Buddhist monk and traveller called Gyoki is said to have met the Buddha of medicine, known in Japanese as Yakushi Nyorai, in a dream at the spot where the temple stands today.

In his hand, Nyorai held a bunch of grapes — inspiring Gyoki to found Daizenji and establish the local vineyard culture, teaching Yamanashi residents how to make wine for medicinal purposes.

At the temple today, a small shrine protects an antique cherry-wood statue of Yakushi Nyorai with his famous bunch of grapes.

This is such a precious part of the temple that it is only shown in public every five years:

Mythical story-telling aside, there are suggestions that wine-making in the region may have followed the Silk Road in the same way Buddhism established itself in Asia:

DNA analysis has found that koshu — the oldest grape variety grown in the mountainous region — is a hybrid of a vine species originally cultivated in Europe and a wild Chinese vine.

…The website for Yamanashi’s “koshu valley”, supported by the local chamber of commerce, suggests seeds or vines from China may have been planted in the grounds of temples and rediscovered by chance much later.

Wine production only truly took off in Japan during the Meiji era from 1868 to 1912 though, as it was a time when the country suddenly found major interest in the Western world.

Yamanashi, with its fertile soil and long history, was always the perfect spot for vineyards in the region that favours rice over grapes:

Daizenji is currently surrounded by grapes being grown on pergola structures and houses a shop selling its own grapes and bottles of wine bearing the temple’s name:

“Growing grapes, making wine, it’s a good deed,” Inoue said with a smile.

“It’s good karma.”

You can’t argue with a Buddhist monk.

Doing their fair share of good deeds in our country is Anthonij Rupert Wyne.

 

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Hosting some of the country’s finest wine, Anthonij Rupert Wyne was founded on the L’Ormarins farm in Franschhoek, having originally been owned by the late Anthonij Rupert.

When he passed away in 2001, the farm was eventually taken over by his brother Johann Rupert in 2003 and the brand was named after him.

It was Johann Rupert who constructed a state-of-the-art winemaking facility, catapulting the farm into a prestigious wine estate and the beginnings of what is now a sprawling enterprise.

With a focus on terroir-specific wines, its six distinctive wine brands are made on a number of sites across the region, with each area offering optimum varietal-specific growing conditions to support the brand’s nuances:

You can step back in time right here, at the estate’s historic Manor House, serving a selection of premium wines and classy meals, high-tea included.

Book your wine-tasting date for some good karma. I am sure Inoue-san will approve from across the sea.

[source:ewn]