 |
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Our domestic wines include the representative Japanese wine “Château Mercian” as well as popular everyday wines such as “Mercian Bon Rouge”, “Mercian Oishii-sankaboshizai-mutenka wine”, a delicious and additive-free wine, and “Mercian Bistro”,“Mercian every”. Imported wines include “Frontera” and “Sunrise” from the Concha y Toro winery in Chile and the Californian wine Franzia. In this way, we offer an extensive range of wines with a good balance between price and quality. We also deliver fine wines from around the world, such as Chile's Casillero del Diablo.
We were quick to introduce imported wines with screw caps as a means of promoting the “easy” appeal of wine to customers. We continue to pursue a range of activities designed to make wine even easier for customers in Japan to enjoy. For instance, we have introduced a PET bottle for wine that is both highly convenient, being lighter, less prone to breakage and easier to dispose of, s well as kinder to the environment, with lower CO2 emissions associated with bottle manufacturing and transportation.
Through our association with the Kirin Group, Mercian will continue to utilize the strength of the Group to deliver an extensive range of products designed to anticipate changes in customer preferences, value systems and lifestyles, in order to expand and deeply cultivate a healthy wine market and establish ourselves as the No. 1 in terms of customer support.
As Japan's oldest commercial wine company, Mercian has continued to seek out wines that suit the tastes of Japanese consumers.
Our wines have won acclaim not only in Japan, but at competitions throughout the world.
We at Mercian have a vision-to reform the image of Japanese wine.
By offering newer, freer, ways of enjoying wine, and in new combinations with food, we aim to deliver refreshing surprises and joy to a wider audience.
In addition, we hope that the fulfilling times enjoyed drinking wine will lead to new bonds and friendships.
Wine still has much uncharted potential. Moreover, it has the power to bring happiness.
These are Mercian's firm beliefs.
|
The first wine-making private company in Japan was Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budoushu-Gaisha, founded in 1877. In that year, two young men were sent to France, the home of wine, to study viticulture and wine-making techniques. This marked the birth of wine-making in Japan. Dai-Nihon Yamanashi Budoushu-Gaisha was the predecessor of Mercian, which today has grown into a leading presence in the domestic wine industry. Château Mercian is the embodiment of this history. |
The two students of wine-making: |
Château Mercian pursues a uniqueness that can only be expressed by Japanese wine, based on the conviction that “good wines faithfully express the grape characteristics nurtured by the climate, weather and producers of the region” and heralding the concept of “Growing Differences in the World.” What has been reached is a style of finesse and elegance. Through Château Mercian, we will continue our daily efforts to produce better wines in our quest to gain global recognition of Japan as an excellent and unique wine producing region and to have Japanese wines loved and enjoyed by Japan, the producer country. Launched in 1970, the Château Mercian series has a proud history of taking out prestigious prizes at a number of wine contests around the world. Also, with the development of brewing technology specifically for the unique Japanese grape variety known as koshu, we have created a new style of koshu wine exemplified by “Château Mercian Koshu Kiiroka”. In 2011, we also released the Château Mercian Ensemble series, aiming to further the appreciation of Japanese wines within Japan. We will work to increase engagement with our customers to broaden awareness of high quality Japanese wines. |
Château Mercian Ensemble : |
The Château Mercian winery, which has become a symbol of the Mercian brand, underwent renovation in September 2010. The aim is for the winery to play the role of a base for the dissemination of information about Japanese wines where visitors can both learn about and enjoy wines in a specialist manner. In addition, the winery is constantly working to further improve the quality of our wines, utilizing the site's wine making, storage and manufacturing facilities. |
Château Mercian |
|
In 2003, with the aim of cultivating grapes for use in the company's wine products, Mercian opened the Mariko Vineyard at Ueda in Nagano, which boasts weather and climate ideally suited to growing grapes. Using the grape growing know-how built up from Mercian's experimental vineyards and overseas wineries, we cultivate our own trellis-grown vines to ensure the highest quality of grapes for our wine products. Mercian wines have also received acclaim for their quality. In 2010, we released our first vintage from the Mariko Vineyard. In 2011 and 2012, our “Château Mercian Mariko Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc” won a Gold Award at the Japan Wine Competition, as did our “Château Mercian Mariko Vineyard Omnis” in 2012. |
Mariko Vineyard |
At Château Mercian, we aim to ensure constant high quality and support the long-term stability of local agriculture by contracting directly with our grape growers and purchasing grapes for our wines on an ongoing basis.
We also make wine production technology available to other wineries, aiming to improve the overall quality of Japanese wine.
The Mercian Fujisawa plant melds brewing techniques cultivated by tradition and history together with advanced equipment and nature's gifts to continue creating reasonably priced wines that can be enjoyed with peace of mind. We also provide wines to suit a variety of different customer preferences and needs, such as wines that can be enjoyed in combination with everyday meals and wines with specialized functionalities. We enjoy considerable support from customers for products such as “Mercian Bon Rouge”, a red wine with twice as much polyphenol as Mercian's standard wine, “Mercian Oishii-sankaboshizaimutenka wine”, a delicious and additive-free wine high in ntioxidants, a fresh-tasting wine that is brewed painstakingly without antioxidant additives, and “Mercian Bistro”, a reasonably priced wine for the everyday dinner table. In March 2012 we launched “Mercian every”, aiming to promote wine as a part of everyday life. Developed with the full artistry of Mercian's winemaking techniques, “Mercian every” features the rich bouquet characteristic of fine wine, and a balanced, tart palate. The result is a wine that suits the tastes and lifestyles of Japanese customers, and can be enjoyed on an everyday basis at a reasonable price. |
Mercian every |
Valuable opinions and requests from our customers are incorporated into product development. Examples include using screw caps for greater convenience, providing tasting charts that indicate wine characteristics, Bag in Box improvements, and the development of PET bottles for wines.
Mercian has introduced PET bottles for wine to reduce CO2 emissions during manufacturing and transportation. In addition, some imported wines are shipped by sea to Japan in large-volume bags for rebottling, reducing CO2 emissions during the shipping process.
We supply Japan with wines from around the world, from the traditional wine-making countries of France, Italy, Germany and Spain to the so-called New World including the United States, Chile and Australia. We currently have affiliations with more than 50 companies in over 10 different countries.
At Mercian, we see it as our mission to continue providing delicious wines to the Japanese market and to lead the wine world.
|
Because Mercian has a global reputation we are able to establish partnerships with the world's leading wineries. Under the common objective of making excellent wines, Mercian has formed secure relationships of trust with famous wineries around the world and set up importing and retail alliances. Our first alliance with an overseas company was an importing and retail agreement concluded in 1972 with the Spanish company Gonzalez Byass for Tio Pepe sherry. This was followed by alliances with a number of eminent wineries around the world including Chile's leading winery(*1) Concha y Toro; Robert Mondavi, hailed as the father of Californian wine; and The Wine Group, maker of Franzia, the highest-selling stand-alone brand in the world(*2). In sparkling wines, which have been selling strongly in recent years, we have introduced Japan to products from Champagne Pommery, the pioneer of dry (Brut) champagne, and from Codorniu in Spain. |
Robert Mondavi (USA) |
|
By introducing wines from around the world in this way, we have widened the circle of wine consumption in Japan and helped to make wine more familiar. (*1) Based on Jan-Dec 2012 shipments; figures supplied by Statistics of Chilean Wine Exportation |
|
We own Château Mercian, located at Koshu in Yamanashi. In addition, we acquired Markham Vineyards in the Napa Valley in California, in the United States, as an affiliate in 1987, followed by Château Reysson, in Haut-Medoc in the Bordeaux region of France, in 1988. We have been installing additional equipment and making all manner of efforts to improve quality. Since its acquisition by Mercian, Markham Vineyards has transplanted vineyards and upgraded various types of brewing equipment.
These major reforms have produced a spectacular improvement in the quality of the wines, to the point where Markham wines are now highly valued as representative of Californian wines and are even served at diplomatic functions hosted by the government of the United States. We likewise dispatched technical staff to Château Reysson to improve the quality of the wines. Consequently Château Reysson took out the gold medal at the prestigious Le Concours des Grands Vins de France de Mâcon in 1998, the world's largest wine appraisal event. This achievement has steadily borne fruit, and today it attracts attention as a preeminently ranked Cru Bourgeois wine among the many that exist. |
Markham Vineyards (USA)
Château Reysson (France) |
|
Mercian presents a variety of ideas so that customers may enjoy a rich lifestyle accompanied by wine. From our spring Rose wine promotion to our summer rock wine spritzers, mariage (marriage) of wine with Autumn foods, and hot wine in Winter, along with suggestions for other special events such as Valentine's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Halloween and Christmas, we have the wine for any occasion. In conjunction with the Kirin Group's alcohol related business, we are working to promote wine as part of daily life through in-store promotions. In addition, our WINESUKI communications website, updated weekly, offers a variety of content to help customers enjoy wine, including recipes that complement wine, wine selection tips, and wines to match the season. |
|
