The Comics Bureau

Con­tinu­ing the manga/food theme, is a story about how one Manga has seem­ingly sparked a wine renais­sance in Japan — The Drops of God.

The main char­ac­ter of the manga, a young man called Shizuku Kan­zaki, dis­cov­ers the beauty of wine after his father, a fam­ous wine critic, dies and leaves an unusual will: a descrip­tion of 12 wines he con­siders to be the best in the world, com­par­ing them to Jesus Christ’s disciples.

The series has come as a wel­come piece of sur­prise pub­li­city for many of the wine­makers fea­tured in the series;

Sales of Osborn’s The Laugh­ing Mag­pie (2006 vin­tage) star­ted soar­ing even before it appeared inThe Drops of God — thanks to rumours leaked before the comic went to print. The 200 bottles in Japan sold imme­di­ately. Since then, demand has exceeded sup­ply and the South Aus­tralian winery has run out of the vin­tage, going into the early release of the 2007 vintage.