User:Murgh/Koshu (grape)

Koshu is a white wine and table grape.

a variety this Japan has made its own. Though originated in Asia Minor, arriving in China via the Silk Route and brought into Japan by Buddhists, it has been cultivated in the Yamanashi district since at least the 8th century.

Until recently, Koshu was used only to make sweet wine, or anonymous in a blended modern-style wine.

Since the turn of the millennium, some Japanese producers have been working to improve a pure, dry style.

Koshu is the most visible of the modest Vitis vinifera presence in the Japanese viticulture. Neo-Muscat, a variety developed from crossing Koshu Sanjaku with Muscat of Alexandria, also vinifera is now more widely planted than Koshu, but less well known.

Another related grape, Ryugan (also known as Senkoji, possibly the same as China's Longyan), is grown in small quantities, predominantly in Nagano Prefecture in central Honshu. As with Koshu, Neo-Muscat and Ryugan produce grapes more suited as table grapes, but also made into light and generally sweetish wine.