Umeshu
- one of
the most
interesting
fruit wines
in the
world, is
made from
Japanese
apricot
named ume.
S
akura is a little sweet
and fruity and pairs
well with any dish from
grilled, deli meat, salad,
to fruits and pastries.
Unlike other wines, sakura isn’t
aged. Grapes are harvested in the
summer to produce Sakura wine
the next spring. No one saves it for
years to come; therefore, Sakura
wine is quite rare. However, it isn’t
expensive. You can buy a 500ml
bottle of wine for 14USD. The best
things go with their season, so
enjoy the cherry blossoms season
in April with Sakura - the wine of
spring!
Umeshu: Summer winds
in Ibaraki
Ibaraki is famous for its Kairakuen
Garden with more than 3,000
apricot trees. This garden is an
ideal place for visitors to spend a
134
TRAVELLIVE
day wandering around and enjoying
the fragrance of apricot blossoms
and imbibing apricot wine at
summer night parties. Endowed
by nature with pure water, fertile
soil, and an especially abundant
variety of apricots, Ibaraki has
become home to more than sake
breweries. Umeshu - one of the
most interesting fruit wines in
the world, is made from Japanese
apricots named ume. Ume is much
bigger and fleshier than the apricots
or plums in Vietnam.
If you are curious about how the
ancient Japanese produced Umeshu
and sake, then visit Umeshu &
Sake Besshunkan Museum at the
Meiri Shurui Brewery. Long ago,
Tokugawa Mitsukuni - the second
leader of Mito- was passionate
about sake and often held wine
parties he called “besshunnkae”
because for him “there was a
spring in a glass of sake”. With a