A circle of friends connected by gootouchi! The “FIST BUMP” corner of the radio program “GRAND MARQUEE” features people who live and enjoy Tokyo in a relay format.
On September 20, Shinichi Takahashi and Mikachuu of the natural wine specialty store “HUMAN NATURE” appeared on the show, introduced by Ryusuke Eda of the fashion brand “bal”, and we asked them about how they opened their store, why they chose Kabuto-cho, and the appeal of natural wine.
INDEX
Opening a wine event as an opportunity to open a restaurant
Celeina (MC): Let me start with a profile. Shinichi Takahashi studied media studies at a New Zealand university, worked as a barman and in a video production company, and then went on to do a master’s degree at a food university in Italy.He founded HUMAN NATURE in 2015 and is moving to Kabuto-cho, where the store is currently located, in 2019.
Mikachuu after graduating from Nihon University College of Art with a BA in Film Scriptwriting, worked in film promotion and artist management. After working in food event planning and wine festival booking PR, she met Mr. Takahashi and has been working at HUMAN NATURE since 2019.
Takano (MC): You both came to wine after building careers from different fields such as video, film, and media relations. How did you meet?
Takahashi: When I first started my wine business, I had a weekly stall at a farmer’s market in Aoyama, where I also held wine events. We held that event four times, and on that fourth event, Mikachuu was in charge of PR as support and brought in a lot of people.
Takano: What was the process from there to opening the restaurant?
Mikachuu: We had a meeting to discuss bookings and talked about our personal lives, and Mr. Takahashi said, “I’m going to open this restaurant, if you want to join me?”. We had a connection in some aspects of our lives.
Takano: I heard that you started the store to buy natural wine at a reasonable price.
Takahashi: At first, yes. I had been playing without working for about a year after moving to Tokyo, and my savings had run out, so it became difficult to buy wine every day. So I decided to get a license and start buying wine at a vendor’s price.
Celeina：I have the impression that natural wine starts around 3,000 yen in the price range I imagine, but how much are the expensive ones?
Takahashi：In the world of high-end wines, the price is very high, but natural wines are around 20,000 yen at the most.
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Why did you choose Kabuto-cho as your new location?
Celeina：Your restaurant has relocated and is now located in Kabuto-cho.
Takahashi：We chose our current location after having worked in Koenji and Nakano, but first of all, the building itself was good. Also, Kabuto-cho was originally home to many securities firms because of the stock exchange, but as Internet trading became mainstream in the 1990s and 2000s, the securities firms left the area and the town became vacant. That’s when the people from the real estate companies approached me and said, “Why don’t you do it here?”
Takano: What is the lineup of stores in Kabuto-cho like?
Mikachuu: When Mr. Takahashi went to university in New Zealand, his Italian roommate drew wine labels, and from there he started interacting with wine people, so the lineup includes many Italian and French wines that Mr. Takahashi was influenced by. We also have wines from Austria, Germany, Spain, and Japan.
Celeina：I asked Mr. Takahashi to choose a song that everyone would like to listen to on the radio during this time. What kind of song is it?
Takahashi：This is a demo song by Steve Porcaro, who wrote Michael Jackson’s “Human Nature”.
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Natural wine is made only with good grapes and good bacteria.
Celeina：Again, what is the difference between natural wine and ordinary wine?
Takahashi：Mass-produced wines are usually made with a variety of ingredients, but natural wine is made with only delicious grapes and tasty bacteria from the vineyard, surrounding environment, plants, animals, microorganisms, and other ecosystems that are in a vibrant cycle.
Celeina：That’s what natural means, isn’t it? You brought a bottle of natural wine to the studio today that you recommend.
Takahashi: It is from a winery called Momento Mori, which recently visited Japan and is located about an hour and a half drive north of Melbourne.
Takano: I can really smell the grape aroma.
Celeina: It’s not slightly carbonated, but it has a nice, cool, refreshing feel on the tongue. The color is also not red wine, right?
Takahashi：This wine is made by mixing Ribolla Gialla, a white grape commonly used in Friuli, Italy, and Nero d’Avola, a black grape from Sicily, both grown in the same region. It is quite an original mixture.
Takano: Can I drink it at the store?
Takahashi: There should be at least two more bottles.
Celeina: It is a natural wine, after all, so it must be very precious. “FIST BUMP” is a “circle of friends connected by gut touch,” and you are introducing us to your friends.
Mikachuu: This is Chef Kyohei Nishi of the restaurant “Neki” in Kabuto-cho.
Celeina: In a word, what kind of person is he?
Takahashi: He has a restaurant about a 20-second walk away, so he is like a friend from the neighborhood.
Mikachuu: He is a chef who has won Bib Gourmand in French for many years in a row. He also loves music, so we listen to records together.
Celeina：FIST BUMP, today we welcome Shinichi Takahashi and Mikachuu from HUMAN NATURE, a natural wine store in Kabuto-cho. Thank you very much.
GRAND MARQUEE
J-WAVE (81.3FM) Mon-Thu 16:00 – 18:50
Navigator: Shinya Takano, Celeina Ann
