Osamu Uchida, Haut-Medoc Miracle, 2023

Osamu Uchida grew up in Hiroshima where his parents had a wine shop, fascinated with French culture and having a strong desire to work in wine he made the trip to France in 1999. After learning some basic French, he enrolled for a course on viticulture and oenology before travelling throughout the country, working for free and visiting as many as 300 domaines over ten years. In 2015, after months of research, he finally found a tiny 0.6ha parcel surrounded by cool and humid Landes forest, in the village of Cissac-Médoc, west of Pauillac and St Estèphe. Planted with cabernet sauvignon only and completely secluded. This is a stunning place which Osamu tends like if it was his back garden and where he practises agroforestry. Everything is done by hand with complete focus, precision and obsessive attention to details in typical Japanese fashion. His gentle approach in the cellar allows him to coax incredibly supple, succulent fruit out of his vines. He produces a mere 2,400 bottles of the cuvée Miracle – when nature permits – from his garage just 125m away from Mouton Rothschild’s headquarters. Osamu’s wine is lifted, incredibly fine and pure, and rarely above 12% alcohol.