Wine Manga Affects Entire Asian Wine Industry

I like me some of the vino…but not enough to go crazy and be a connoisseur. Get me some decent $8-$12/bottle stuff and I’m good to go.

However, maybe if I started reading the most influential wine critic in Asia, I’d be joining Japan in one of their bi-weekly wackadoo trends…

Since coming out of nowhere four years ago, this 20-something Japanese would-be sommelier has quickly become the most influential voice in Asia’s wine markets.

In Tokyo, wine sellers monitor his weekly pronouncements before adjusting their stocks accordingly. In newer markets like Taiwan and urban China, his recommendations are turning the newly affluent into wine converts. And in Seoul, South Koreans now hold forth on “terroir� and how a bottle “marries� with a particular dish without blinking.

Never mind that Shizuku is a comic-book figure, the hero of a manga series, “The Drops of the Gods,� created and written by a middle-aged Japanese sister-and-brother team. Asian readers who have never heard of Robert M. Parker Jr. scrutinize the comic hero’s every sip, learning about wine in words and images that may seem strange to traditionalists.

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