Consumers in Japan have good taste, curiosity and bit of money to spend on wine. But the reality is that they hardly can access the right wine they want to buy. Why? The market people, so called wine experts are not able to help and guide the consumers. The market people are too naive about not only wine appreciation but marketing.

As a wine educator and a marketer in Japan, I don’t really think the consumers need serious wine education but the market people are definitely needed wine education. Otherwise good consumers will never access to quality wine in Japan despite good wines have been introduced and there is a good demand for them.

As we moved past numbers 1, 2 and 3 a realisation dawned on me. As I am a less than experienced Sake drinker, I had absolutely no frame of reference available to me to make any judgment about these different brands. All I had to go on was price and whether I though the design was appealing. That’s it. Even if I could have tasted them, I’m not sure I could make any sensible judgment as again, I don’t know how a Sake should taste.

So that could be how Japanese consumers feel when it comes to choosing imported wine – nothing to guide them except price and the design of a label. Oh, yes, and the shop staff, no surprise then that the queue of shoppers waiting for advice in Japanese wine shops remains busy.