A wine store near Tokyo with all of its bottles on end,* on open racks with the doors wide open to outside,** half of them against the glass.*** Hmm... Unless your turnover of every bottle is under a week... Was interested in the selection, but turned on my heel and left. Took this photo from outside.
Now I have seen poor wine storage elsewhere, but I see no end in Japan. There are
otaku of foreign tipples who do get it right, but they are an exception, and expensive. I know cellaring is not in the culture, but shit: Google it. No, fuck you! If you're selling something, try not to do all of the things to ruin a product in ways the buyer won't know until they uncork it... if they even know enough even then.
Reminds me of my brother taking me to
Delirium and noting the beer would be better if it weren't so cold. "Yes, but cellar temperature beer is a non-seller with the
salaryman."
*Corks will dry out, and become permeable to pathogens which will ruin the wine.
**Wine keeps and ages best at a consistent and cool temperature and high humidity (think 'cellar'): not Tokyo's dry winters down to zero, and humid summers up near forty.
***UV bad.
.JPG)
I lived above a cafe (in Aus) and the owner stored wine in our dining room, upright in boxes. The room got so hot in summer you couldn't even use it so I told him that it would ruin the wine. He did nothing and still tried to sell it. At least in Japan you could get away with it, here not much. People know more about wine.
ReplyDeleteIn Ontario, Canada, drink is only available from a public bureaucracy: LCBO. As bad as that sounds, they have a decent standard of storage, and carry items in smaller centres a private company wouldn't. We pay more than in the States, but then again, we pay less than in Japan.
DeleteAnd with all due respect to my American friends and readers, I am happy to pay the price for civilization (taxes), and I do not consider America's domestic and foreign policy a civilization I want anything to do with.
I was recently gifted a bottle of wine with a dry ass cork :(
ReplyDeleteIt's not that hard to store it on it's side, in a nice, cool, dry place. Like by potatoes or something, instead I ended up with a mostly destroyed cork with bits floating in the wine. I let my husband have full run on that bottle.
You would think people living in California, gifting wine would have better sense. *sigh* Wine in Japan sounds like it would not be so fun.
There is just no excuse for not taking due care with a product. A sign of poor breeding.
Delete