Quality Japanese wine? It's no oxymoron

(CNN) - Looking for a drink in Japan?

A bottle of sake or a few pints of a domestic beer are the most obvious choices, but wine drinkers should give the local grape, the Koshu, a chance.

Koshu wine is produced by about 80 vineyards in the Yamanashi prefecture at the base of Mount Fuji.

Ayana Misawa, winemaker at Grace Vineyard, describes the variety as charming, with a crisp acidity and low alcohol level.

“Koshu has a very elegant smell," she says. "Aromas like citrus, white flowers."

Misawa, the fifth generation winemaker in her family, is part of a movement to bring international techniques to Yamanashi to improve the quality of the product.

She studied methods in France, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

Now she strives to make more international, “food-friendly” Koshu.

Japanese wine -- getting better 

Wine experts say thanks to efforts like Misawa’s, the quality of Japan’s wines has improved significantly in the last five years.

At the Japan Wine Competition, an annual event held in Yamanashi, judges say the focus now needs to turn to making Koshu a name people recognize.

“I think we have to do various things and encourage people to taste it, because once they've tasted it they really like to buy another bottle,” says master of wine Lynn Sherriff, a judge at the Japan wine competition in Yamanashi.