"Taste of heaven: Manga spreads 'Drops of God' in Asia" reports Sophie Hardach in Reuters today.
Apparently "Wine reviews with a twist are a speciality of "Kami no Shizuku" ("The Drops of God"), a manga comic series that has taken Japan by storm, is conquering Korea and China and has boosted European wine sales along the way.
Written by a brother-and-sister duo of wine enthusiasts, the manga comic combines a mystery plot with a playful introduction to European wines. Think "The Da Vinci Code" set in a Tokyo bar.
"The minute it was translated into Korean, we had calls from three importers," said Basaline Granger Despagne, whose family has grown wine near France's Dordogne river for 250 years. Their Chateau Mont Perat 2001 Bordeaux appears early on in the manga. With this sudden interest, the producers are getting calls from all over for shipments of wine. Basaline Granger Despagne said her family had been approached by distributors in mainland China but had so far found no one they felt comfortable selling their wine to.
"When it was translated into Chinese, people called us from Taiwan saying, 'I bought some Mont Perat and sold 50 cases in two days because of the manga'," she said in a phone interview. In Korea, businessmen drop names from the serialised book into chats with reporters and shops display "Drops of God" signs.
Wine industry experts believe part of the manga's appeal is that it teaches readers enough about wine to understand the drink and impress their friends, but does so in an entertaining way. The main character of the manga, a young man called Shizuku Kanzaki, discovers the beauty of wine after his father, a famous wine critic, dies and leaves an unusual will: a description of 12 wines he considers to be the best in the world, comparing them to Jesus Christ's disciples. The first person to find these "disciples" will inherit the father's wine collection, a contest that pits Shizuku against his adoptive brother, Issey Tomine, who works as a sommelier."
The authors say the manga is not sponsored by anyone and they choose the wines based on their own independent research, including trips abroad and tastings.
Japan probably has the most developed wine scene in the Asia. At a recent wine tasting in Tokyo's Grand Hyatt hotel, row after row of Japanese wine lovers were expertly slurping, spitting and taking notes as German sommelier Markus Del Monego explained what they were drinking.
Early next year, "The Drops of God" will be published in French, possibly followed by Italian. The original book series is expected to continue for another five years or so, and there is talk of a film.
© Reuters 2007. All Rights Reserved.
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