French Winemaker Overwhelmed by Manga-fueled Boom
Jean-Pierre Amoreau, the owner of the estate in France that produces Château Le Puy wine, has experienced a huge boom in demand for his product after the Japanese manga series “The Drops of God” [Les Gouttes de Dieu / 神の雫] featured it as one of the world’s finest wines:
The comics, which recount the quest of a young man to inherit his wine critic father’s vast collection, see him attempt to identify the 13 wines chosen by his father in his will. They are all real-life vintages – such as the 1994 Château Lafleur and 1999 Château Palmer – and the wines have experienced a surge in sales after being featured in the books.
“The effect has been enormous and rather impressive,” said a spokeswoman for Glénat, the publishing house that has printed the translated volumes since 2008, adding that some of the winemakers chosen had seen their Asian exports double or even triple.
She said: “The authors did not expect this phenomenon. They were quite surprised that they were able to influence the French market like this, as the choices are based on their personal tastes.”
The upturn in sales seen by Château le Puy in March, after the broadcast of a spin-off television show, is likely to pale in comparison with what lies in wait for the lucky wine chosen as the 13th and final vintage of the original manga series – not due to be published for several years.
Amoreau had 150 orders for his 2003 vintage the day after the cartoon’s finale was shown, and even received Japanese fans who had travelled from Paris to buy some.
According to French News Online, Mr. Amoreau is not trying to make a crazy profit by raising the prices on his wine to meet the new demand. He tried his best to make the wine available at an affordable price to his long-term customers:
…on March 11, 2009, the day of the release in Japan of the cartoon series episode that showed his Château Le Puy 2003 as a wine “apostle”, a cru or classified vineyard enshrined in the cartoon’s storyline, the notoriety of what he calls a “simple appellation” exploded and the winemaker was forced to suspend sales worldwide.
“On that day we suddenly received around 200 orders from Japan and when we asked our local agent what was happening he discovered a huge buzz had been generated by the series. We immediately stopped all sales around the world to avoid speculation.”
“Pascal, my son, and I had a brief discussion and decided that it would be healthier for our reputation and our wine if we stopped sales to avoid price speculation. We asked our agents in Japan, Canada and elsewhere to remove the bottles from shelves,” says Jean-Pierre Amoreaux. “We wanted to ensure this wine was available to the customers who have helped us make a living for the past 50 years. Soon after this the price returned to its normal level of around 19.90 euros”.
A BBC News video report about this story can be viewed here.
Note: The articles quoted in this post use the word “cartoon” to describe the TV show, when in fact they should be mentioning that the spin-off was a live-action television show.
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