Japan in Brda
On Thursday, 30th September 2021, an exclusive event Japan in Brda: merging of Japanese cuisine and Slovenian wines was held at the Klet Brda Winery in Dobrovo. It was organised by the Klet Brda Winery in collaboration with the Japanese embassy in Slovenia. As part of the event, the winery welcomed the Japanese ambassador to Slovenia, His Excellency Hiromichi Matsushima. The purpose of the event was to explore the Japanese culture and focus on the merging of Japanese cuisine with Slovenian wines, including the Klet Brda wines which the winery has been selling in Japan with great success. In charge of preparing traditional Japanese dishes for the event was Kenji Koyama, the Japanese chef at the Ambassador’s Residence in Ljubljana.
Japan is an advanced high-tech society with highly educated workforce and high purchasing power. It is a country in which gastronomy plays a significant cultural role. In 2013, the Japanese traditional cuisine, praised for its use of seasonal ingredients and centuries-old culinary techniques, was added on the UNESCO list of World Heritage. Joining France, Japan became only the second country to obtain this certificate.
15 years of collaboration with Belluna.
The leading Japanese catalogue and online retailer Belluna with annual market value of EUR 1,6 billion was founded in 1968 as a catalogue retailer, but over the years expanded its activities to online sale of food, clothes, and products for leisure and recreation activities. The Klet Brda Winery started working with them in 2006 and since then the scope of their collaboration has been slowly but steadily increasing. In fact, this year, the winery will surpass its plan of 300,000 bottles of wine. Most of the orders consist of Villa Brici, Quercus, and Sparkling Rebula, while Bagueri Superior line is the most sold during festive season. Belluna is a highly demanding business associate with exceptional professionalism, stability, and long-term mindset, which is why the winery has been collaborating with them for over 15 years.
Merging of Japanese cuisine and Slovenian wines.
For Japanese, preparing and serving food is a ritual which follows tradition and numerous details that require years of training. Merging their traditional gastronomy and Brda wines was an interesting challenge, which was successfully tackled by the Japanese Embassy chef Kenji Koyama and the Klet Brda Winery oenologist Darinko Ribolica.
Japanese are known as great art enthusiasts. As part of the Art circle festival, Hotel San Martin in Brda is home to the Japanese cultural embassy. Every year, it collaborates with the Japanese Embassy to host Japanese artists participating at the international visual arts festival, which takes place over the entire region of Brda and in parts of the Vipava Valley. The festival features artists from different countries, local winemakers, tourism providers, and representatives of different embassies in Slovenia. Some of the works created during this festival, which are usually displayed at the Japanese cultural embassy in Brda, were exhibited in the courtyard of the Klet Brda Winery as part of the Japan in Brda event.
