Nero D'avola Mencia Sake Japan Shizuoka Prefecture

Italy’s largest island, Sicily, has a wine producing history that can put most other European regions to shame. It was producing quality wines before the days of the Roman empire, and even the Ancient Greeks were not the first to cultivate vines on the island. For as long as anyone knows, the key grape varietal of Sicily has been Nero d’Avola, the beautiful, deep blue skinned grape which produces the region’s characterful, powerful red wines. While in the past, Nero d’Avola was mainly used as a blending grape, due to its deep color and intensely full body, it is today being increasingly celebrated as a single varietal wine grape, and is perfect for those who like their wines boisterous, loud and strong.



Nero d’Avola is grown pretty much everywhere on Sicily, as demand for wines made from this grape have never been higher. Despite its power and body, it is quite a versatile grape - it can be aged in oak barrels, which produces a dense and dark wine which puts its intense characteristics to good use, but it is also often drunk quite young, which allows its jammy, plummy character to come forward. It is also used to make rose wines in some appellations of Sicily, demonstrating a softer side to this otherwise heavy, deeply flavorful grape.

All over Japan, farmers and wine producers take the production of alcoholic beverages including plum wine and sake very seriously. It is an industry which dates back well over a thousand years, and is held in high esteem in this far east country, where plum wines and sake often accompany meals and are used for ceremonial purposes. Whilst plum wine is produced in a relatively similar way to grape based wines, sake requires a complex process more akin to the brewing of beer, except using a rice mash instead of other grains. The rising popularity of both of these drinks in the west has seen the drinks industry in Japan increase dramatically over recent years, and both quality and quantity has risen alongside demand, and is expected to rise further.