佐藤酒莊：新西蘭的日本制造

文|Tersina Shieh 編、譯|張恬熙

熱情的葡萄酒愛好者往往希望有一天能夠實現他們的夢想，釀造自己的葡萄酒。日本人吉崎佐藤就是其中一位。

Passionate wine lovers often want to live their dreams and make their own wines one day.Japanese Yoshiaki Sato is one of them.

熱情的葡萄酒愛好者往往希望有一天能夠實現他們的夢想，釀造自己的葡萄酒。日本人吉崎佐藤就是其中一員。2005年，他與妻子恭子結束了前景光明的銀行業生涯，定居新西蘭學習葡萄種植和釀酒，他們在中奧塔哥的酒莊里積累經驗，并最終釀出了屬于自己的葡萄酒?250箱黑皮諾，這是2009年以佐藤酒莊名義發布的葡萄酒，所用的葡萄來自中奧塔哥的兩個有機葡萄園。

夫妻倆的辛勤勞動得到了回報，如今他們生產6款葡萄酒，總共1800箱，出口到包括香港在內的多個國際市場。2015年，這對夫妻在中奧塔哥的皮薩山脈處購買了一塊5公頃的葡萄園，第二年種植了1.7萬棵葡萄藤，并在今年釀造了第一款葡萄酒。

不知道是不是因為日本文化的背景，佐藤酒莊的黑皮諾和中奧塔哥大部分的都不一樣。主要體現為葡萄酒更加精致，口感清爽，就像日本的美食一樣。吉崎佐藤比他的大多數鄰居更早采摘葡萄，以保持果實新鮮的酸度。由于葡萄的成熟度恰到好處，并不會過熟，所以葡萄酒最終的酒精含量會低于14%。雖然過熟的葡萄可以經得起更多新橡木桶的歷練，但這并不適用于所有葡萄品種。黑皮諾比較女性化，有柔順的單寧，應該溫柔對待。吉崎佐藤認為，葡萄酒的復雜性應該來自于葡萄本身而不是橡木桶賦予的風味。雖然他會用新橡木桶來陳釀一部分葡萄酒，但是他只使用較大的500升桶，并且使用的比例很小，以此來保證葡萄酒的味道不會被橡木桶帶來的風味所淡化。

吉崎佐藤奉行自然釀酒法，即不使用酵母和化學制品等商業產品，在裝瓶時也只用最少量的二氧化硫來保存葡萄酒。我對自然酒的過度營銷持懷疑態度，但是吉崎佐藤的酒讓我相信自然酒并非不干凈的葡萄酒。他確保葡萄是健康的，酒窖是干凈的，以及葡萄酒是處理恰當的。

我們品鑒了2016年份的3款黑皮諾，它們都有不同的特點。諾斯布恩葡萄酒（Northburn）采用生物動力法，這款酒口感優雅，有純凈的紅色水果氣息和細膩的單寧。皮薩之地葡萄酒（Pisa Terrace）則口感更加豐富，酒體飽滿，散發著深色水果的香氣。林索仕葡萄酒（Linsolite）是旗艦酒款，有諾斯布恩葡萄酒的純度，又有皮薩之地葡萄酒的結構感，復雜度更勝一壽。

佐藤酒莊還有一款必須嘗試的酒款：用灰皮諾釀造并進行了3周果皮浸漬的橙酒。這款酒很清新，帶有草本和花朵香氣，還有茉莉花茶般的口感。這款酒搭配粵式點心絕對會比中國茶更好！

Passionate wine lovers often want to live their dreams and make their own wines one day.Japanese Yoshiaki Sato is one of them.In 2005,he and his wife Kyoko quit their high-flying banking career and settled in New Zealand to study grapegrowing and winemaking, gained hands-on experience at Central Otago wineries, and eventually produced their own wines – 250 cases of Pinot Noir – in 2009 under the brand Sato Wines using grapes sourced from two organic vineyard sites in Central Otago.

Their hard work paid off and today they are making six wines with a total of 1,800 cases exporting to several markets including Hong Kong.In 2015, the couple purchased a 5 ha vineyard plot on Mt Pisa in Central Otago,planted 17,000 vines the following year and made the first wine this year.

Not quite sure if it is because of his Japanese background, Satos Pinot Noirs are different from most Central Otagos.The wines are more delicate with certain lightness on the palate not dissimilar to the fine Japanese cuisine.Yoshiaki pick the grapes earlier than most of his neighbours to retain the fresh acidity.The grapes are of perfect ripeness rather than overripe therefore the final alcohol of the wine is below 14%.Overripe grapes can stand up to more new oak but this is not suitable for all grape varieties.Pinot Noir is feminine with soft tannin and should be treated gently.Yoshiaki believes the complexity of wine has to come from the grapes itself and not new oak.While he uses new barrels for some of his wine, he only uses the bigger 500l barrels and only a small percentage to make sure the oak does not overpower the wine.

Yoshiaki practises natural winemaking, that is, not using commercial products such as yeasts and chemicals, and only minimum sulphur dioxide at bottling to preserve the wine.I am skeptical with the over-marketing of natural wine but Yoshiaki assured me that natural wine does not equal to dirty wine.He makes sure the grapes are healthy, the cellar is clean and the wine is handled properly.

We tasted the three Pinot Noirs from 2016 vintage and they all have different characters.Northburn is from the biodynamic site and the wine is elegant with a pure red fruit expression and fine tannin, while Pisa Terrace is richer, fuller-bodied with darker fruits aromas.Linsolite is the flagship wine that has the purity of Northburn, the structure of Pisa Terrace and added complexity.The other must try Sato Wines is the orange wine made with Pinot Gris with three weeks of skin contact.The wine is fresh with herbs and floral notes, and a jasmine tea-like palate.It definitely goes better with Cantonese dim sum than any Chinese tea!