The wine grape saplings have arrived!
I've been so excited since yesterday!
And that's because... the first batch of wine grape saplings has finally arrived!
What arrived yesterday were 200 Yama Sauvignon saplings and 30 Kyoho saplings. Yama Sauvignon is a crossbreed of Cabernet Sauvignon and wild grapes, and it is a variety used for red wine. It seems that by crossing it with the Japanese wild grape variety, it has become relatively easier to grow in the Japanese climate.
This year, wine grape saplings are hard to come by, and with most nursery companies telling us, 'We don't even know about next year, let alone this year,' the situation is extremely dire, so my joy is all the greater.
It is said that the cause of this year's serious shortage of saplings is the new wine 'labeling law' that will be revised starting this October. Until now, wine made in Japan from grapes imported from overseas could be labeled as 'Japanese wine,' but that will no longer be possible after the law is revised.
As a result, major wineries and others have rushed to secure fields and saplings, which is said to have caused the saplings to disappear from the market.
Furthermore, over the past few years, there has been a winery boom, with the number of wineries increasing every year; last year, a record high of 30 companies were established. (One of those companies is ours, by the way.) I'm sure some percentage of those 30 companies are, like me, desperately scrambling to secure saplings.
In a sense, it seems I started up at the worst possible time.
We were laid-back and didn't start ordering saplings until this year, so by the time we moved to place our orders, the reservations for saplings were almost completely sold out.
Actually, even for the 'Yama Sauvignon' that arrived this time, I was told at the beginning of the order that they could only send 100. (Well, even this was still on the lucky side...)
It was a happy miscalculation that it increased to 200 because a cancellation happened to come up a few days ago.
After all, until just two weeks ago, the total number of saplings I could order was 140...
It's nowhere near enough...
I suppose one tree might produce enough wine for 3 to 6 bottles. Usually, there are 10 to 20 clusters per tree. Even for wine farmers who grow a lot, I think it's about 30 clusters.
And that's assuming all the trees bear fruit at 100% capacity.
If you calculate that one tree produces 3 bottles of wine, even with 200 saplings, you can only make 600 bottles of wine. (This calculation is my own unique method. I apologize if it differs from general conversion methods.)
I started to panic about 10 days ago. (Too late!) Not only did I ask around about the sapling situation through acquaintances, but I also spent several days searching for nursery companies nationwide online and calling them... and it was only a few days ago that I managed to secure a total of 600 saplings, 7 red varieties and 5 white varieties.
Well, I've talked about a lot of things, but for now, I'm going to start the work of planting the saplings that have arrived.
Actually, the hard part starts from here.
I will grow these wine grapes 'without chemical pesticides or chemical fertilizers'.
It is said that European wine grapes are more susceptible to disease than Japanese table grapes, making them difficult to grow in Japan.
I hope they take root successfully (＞人＜;)
#wine #winery #japanwine #yamasauvignon #grapesaplings #wine #winery #japanwine #grapevines