After the devastating 2011 Japan earthquake, investment banker Kohei Koyama re-evaluated his life, deciding to come to New Zealand to make wine.
Nine months ago he took another big step, moving to Urlar Vineyard in the Wairarapa to help its new Japanese owners realise their dream.
Photo: RNZ/Sally Round
On March 11 2011, Kohei Koyama was sitting at his desk in a Tokyo highrise when the building began to shake.
His boss started scrambling to find the helmet and evacuation kit every office worker should have under their desk.
A co-worker started crying.
"Everybody calm down. We're going to be fine," Kohei said.
But the magnitude-9 quake, which caused a massive tsunami and triggered the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, felt like forever to the young investment banker.
"It was life-changing," he says.
Nearly a decade later, Kohei is standing looking out over Urlar Vineyard, near Gladstone in Wairarapa, which he is managing on behalf of its new Japanese owners, the traditional sake makers Nishi Sake Brewing.
Kohei himself comes from an even longer line of sake-makers.
His ancestors started making rice wine in 1596 and that tradition of fermentation, along with his passion for wine, especially New Zealand wine, helped him make a switch from the finance world.
Urlar, a 30-hectare certified organic vineyard, was set by Angus and Davina Thomson in 2004 and the vines are now getting to a mature and exciting stage, Kohei says.
He enjoys working with the team, sharing aspects of Japanese culture and learning from them at morning "smoko".
The new owners didn't come to New Zealand just to make wine, Kohei says.
"They came to make great wine."
