Phenomenal success of Račian wines in Japan

The Villa Vino Rača winery has gone through one of its most successful periods in the past year. Rača wines have been crowned with medals and champion titles at domestic competitions as well as abroad. With a sense of satisfaction, we did not even expect that something could surprise us. At a time when the carousel of regional exhibitions and tastings in Slovakia was only getting started, we received heartwarming news from half a world away. The wines produced by Villa Vino Rača once again enchanted an expert jury, this time at the Sakura competition in faraway Japan.

The official name of the event – ​​Sakura Japan Women`s Wine Awards – immediately tells you two basic things. The competition takes place in Japan and is a strictly women's affair. The wines are judged by women – wine experts. The competition is strongly supported by marketing and is linked to several events. These days it is being presented at the Supermarket Trade Show near Tokyo. At the same time, the results of the last edition of the Sakura Japan Women`s Wine Awards were ceremonially announced at this event.

More than 4,000 wine samples from almost 30 countries took part in the 11th edition of the competition. Competition president Yumi Tanabe particularly highlighted the strong representation of samples from less traditional countries in Eastern Europe. She also emphasised that the main goal of the competition is to make wine more attractive to Japanese consumers and to increase its consumption in the country. An effective tool for this should be public education through the competition. At Sakura, it is not only the wine itself that is evaluated, but also its pairing with food. In the future, organisers want to focus even more on "eno-gastronomy" – the connection of gastronomy with wine. Marketing support for the competition extends beyond the labels on the bottles to the familiar "medals" on the bottles. The competition regularly publishes materials that cover not just the awards but especially the food pairings. In the last edition, the jury paired wines with nine types of food, some of which are specifically traditional Japanese dishes – sushi, tempura, sukiyaki, yakitori, teppan-yaki, pot-au-feu, and three general Asian dishes – Chinese, Korean, and Thai cuisine.

The evaluation itself, under the strict supervision of the competition president, took place at the end of January this year. We had to wait until "Valentine's Day" for the ceremonial announcement of the results, and the "Grand Tasting" of the awarded samples will be held on April 24 in Tokyo. The Slovak participation in the Sakura competition was clearly most successful for the Villa Vino Rača winery, which won the most awards. In the basic evaluation, the Rača winery was awarded one "Diamond Trophy" for the Exclusive Dunaj Grape Selection 2019. The "Diamond Trophy" is the highest medal award at Sakura, even higher than the grand gold medal.

Four gold medals went to the wines Grand Vin Devín Grape Selection 2021, Exclusive Welschriesling Late Harvest 2022, Exclusive Blaufränkisch from Rača 2019 and Palugyay Cabernet Sauvignon Late Harvest 2018. In the food pairing category, the Villa Vino Rača winery achieved phenomenal success. It won the Grand Prix award and a grand gold medal for Exclusive Dunaj Grape Selection 2019. According to the Japanese tasters, this is the right wine to wash down Thai food. It is definitely worth trying. In addition to this success, they awarded the Exclusive Welschriesling Late Harvest 2022 a gold medal – a good choice for pairing with Japanese tempura, the traditional dish of seafood or vegetables coated in batter and fried.

Two red wines produced by Villa Vino Rača also received a special award in the category of lesser-known varieties on the Japanese market. Exclusive Blaufränkisch from Rača 2019 won a gold medal and Exclusive Dunaj 2019 won a grand gold medal and the Grand Prix – the title of champion. It only remains to congratulate the successful Slovak wines and hope that interest in Slovak wine in distant Japan continues to grow. It would be our success too if Slovaks also shared this admiration for exceptional Slovak wines.