An employee at Sun Mamoru Winery Inc. shows the "Danger" wine bottle at Schonburger vineyard in Mutsu, Aomori Prefecture, on July 7, 2021. (Mainichi/Yushi Ezawa)

       MUTSU, Aomori -- A winery in this north Japan city has launched a wine named "Danger," which is made from sweet grape varieties that bears love to eat, in an attempt to use their spoiled nature to advertise the wine.

       Sun Mamoru Winery Inc.'s manager Tetsuya Kasai, 66, said, "As bears cannot pay compensation, we want to at least use them to help advertise the wine."

       Two grape varieties -- Schonburger and Reichensteiner -- that were damaged by bears eating them have been used to make the white wine. The damage to Schonburger was especially severe, with bears having harmed some 1.5 metric tons of the grape by mid-October during the harvest season last year. Security camera footage apparently showed a bear entering the winery's vineyard.

       To make use of the fact that bears like the grapes, the winery blended the two varieties to produce Schonburger's sweet and strong aroma like muscat and lychee, resulting in a sweet wine. If a consumer scans a QR code printed on the label with a smartphone, they can watch a video showing a bear intruding into the vineyard.

       The production department's assistant manager Fumiya Terasawa, 34, commented, "We want to inform people outside the prefecture that tasty wine is being made on the Shimokita Peninsula."

       The winery plans to ship a total of 5,000 bottles priced at 2,530 yen (about $23) each for a 720-milliliter bottle. For more information, contact Sun Mamoru Winery Inc. by phone at 0175-42-3870 (in Japanese)

       (Japanese original by Yushi Ezawa, Aomori Bureau)

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