Koumoto

106-0047

5-1-10 Minamiazabu,

Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

(nearest Metro is Hirõ)

BY NEAL MARTIN | APRIL 08, 2024

The Food:

Kyoto unpressed tofu with wasabi leaf, homemade tuna with Indian spinach and pickled plum, boiled and seasoned Okinawan spinach, eel and cucumber salad and whelks

Ginjo karasumi soba

Seasonal sashimi

Charcoal grilled sweet fish

Grilled fillet of Hida beef

Seasonal vegetable with prawn tempura

Handmade soba noodles

Cold peach shiruko soup

The Wines:

Everyone’s career begins somewhere, a sliding door moment when an opportunity presents itself. Grab it, or else life will switch to another track. The door slid open for this writer in June 1996 when interviewed for an administrative position at Japan Airlines. I would be responsible for wine and paper cups, so who knows, I might have become king of the paper cup industry in an alternate universe. It doesn’t quite have the same ring as “wine writer”. Anyway, having feigned expertise in fermented grape juice at the interview, I stumbled into a wine career as its most unqualified entrant. That didn’t prevent me from being bitten by the wine bug. You know the rest of the story.

I have never forgotten the opportunity that my first job presented, not least, my Japanese colleagues. Robert Parker quite correctly insisted I quit the role to avoid conflicts of interest, though I could stay in touch. A lot of water has passed under the bridge during the 18 years since. All but one in the wine department has retired or gone on to new pastures. Nevertheless, on my second night in Tokyo last summer, I arranged to meet my former JAL colleague, Hiro. I predictably found myself aimlessly wandering Minamiazabu in the vain hope of locating our rendezvous. Koumoto is so hidden away that even Google Maps admits defeat and begins suggesting findable alternatives. Pre-empting this situation, I spot Hiro, who guessed I would be lost and guides me down a secluded passage. If Koumoto was staring me directly in the face, I still would have no chance of finding it. Its façade is anonymous, just showing small signage in Japanese script. Only upon entering do you realize that you are entering an epicurean wonderland, something that happens constantly in Japan.

Kyoto unpressed tofu with wasabi leaf, homemade tuna with Indian spinach and pickled plum, boiled and seasoned Okinawan spinach, eel and cucumber salad and whelks

The interior is divided into different-sized private rooms, catering for two to about twenty persons, each spartanly furnished in a traditional style. Thankfully guests sit on chairs rather than cross-legged on the floor. Dishes are brought in one by one. As a reintroduction to the unmatchable heights of Japanese cuisine after a five-year absence, Koumoto is perfect. The restaurant is famed for its soba, although every dish exudes subtle seasonal flavors, impeccable sourcing of ingredients and serves as a guided tour through traditional Japanese cuisine.  

The five-way starter sets the tone: unpressed tofu from Kyoto with wasabi leaf, homemade tuna with Indian spinach and pickled plum, boiled and seasoned Okinawan spinach, eel and cucumber salad and whelks, each served in unique lacquerware. The eel is magnificent. Just one mouthful popped into the mouth delivers a satisfying depth of flavor. The tuna is also exceptional, a stunning marriage of flavors lent zest by the pickled plum. These starters are paradoxically subtle yet intense, readying the senses for the delights that follow.

Ginjo karasumi soba

The Ginjo karasumi soba is a blend of 90% buckwheat and 10% wheat flour and is delicately curled into a ball. Karasumi is a bit like bottarga, essentially dried mullet roe that is dried in sunlight, a delicacy one sees often in Taiwan. These soba are slightly richer in flavor. The rose imparts salinity and a slight bitterness. It is a perfect foil to the Chilean wine (see below).

Seasonal sashimi

Next comes a divine plate of seasonal sashimi that is so beautifully presented it feels sacrilegious to dismantle it with my chopsticks. The tuna is iridescent and fresh, while the sea bream and mackerel are as pure and saline as you will find. Heavenly.  

Charcoal grilled sweet fish

One of my favorites arrives: charcoal-grilled sweet fish that came from the Tenryu River in central Honshu, Japan’s main island. This is slightly too big to eat whole, head ‘n all, as is custom, but after a couple of mouthfuls, it is gone. This is one of the best examples that I have encountered in Japan. Again, it is intense and pure in flavor, with almost arresting salinity and slightly bitter. Perhaps this was the one dish calling out for a white wine, maybe a slightly oxidized Jura or Vouvray?

Grilled fillet of Hida beef

The sublime meat dish comprises a grilled fillet of Hida beef. These black-haired calves are bred in the Gifu prefecture on the foothills of the Japanese Northern Alps, one of Japan’s most revered breeds renowned for its marbling that must be graded A or B by Hida Beef Brand Promotion Conference. Though the breed has inhabited Japan for centuries, it only became famous in 1981 when a cattle breeder found that a bull named Yasafuku had the perfect genetic composition to create the highest quality marbling throughout all cuts of the animal. Since then, 39,000 offspring have come from this one bull,  now as coveted as the finest Kobe beef. It is fabulous. Just one mouthful is so subtle, juicy and melting in the mouth. It needed minimal accoutrements: Japanese salt, tomato and grilled mange tout. Such is the flavor of the meat, I opt not to season it.

Seasonal vegetable with prawn tempura

Next comes the tempura, prawn and aubergine. The batter is light and delicate, not too oily. The prawn is succulent and sweet.

Handmade soba noodles

The bowl of handmade soba noodles with ribbons of daikon (mooli) and seaweed is one of the finest I have eaten, noisily sucked into the mouth with utmost pleasure, the broth delicately seasoned and not too strong or salty.

We finish with a cold peach Shiruko, a traditional Japanese dessert made from azuki beans. 

My former colleague chose the wines. They are served to me blind because he loves to put me on the spot. We begin with a NV Brut Rosé from Billecart-Salmon, though I am too busy catching up with my friends to compose a note. All of the wines are reds on this occasion.

The 2008 Don Maximiano from Viña Errázuriz is a blend of 84% Cabernet Sauvignon, the rest a blend of Carmenère, Petit Verdot and Syrah. Smoky red fruit appears on the nose, quite warm and inviting yet not overly rich, perhaps melted by time in bottle. It offers scents of brown spices, earthenware and curry leaf with further aeration. The palate has a sumptuous texture, rounded and full in the mouth. Bottle age softens the tannins with brown spice and subtle meat juice notes towards the finish. It is delightful, although I would drink bottles sooner rather than later. The 2008 d’Armailhac is one of my favorite wines from this period. The nose bursts with freshly picked blackberry, rolled tobacco and just a touch of brine, all well-defined and unashamedly classic in style, perhaps too austere for some. The palate is elegant and poised, with plenty of black fruit in the context of the growing season. This is a Pauillac that is à point. 

The 1989 Pinot Noir Jensen Vineyard from Calera is a real surprise. I am inexperienced with respect to mature Californian Pinot Noir, and Josh Jensen’s wine was a revelation. Candied red fruit commingles with blood orange and Kirsch, unmistakably not from Burgundy because it is too rich, but it is certainly not over-ripe. The palate is overly sweet and Californian on the entry. Still, there is structure behind this Pinot extant after more than three decades, with quite plush raspberry fruit on the quintessentially Californian finish. It's just a lovely wine that is, once again, perfect to drink now. The 1975 Batailley is a vintage poured at a vertical at the Pauillac estate with Frédéric Castèja a few months earlier, but perversely, this bottle shows better. There’s a strong marine influence on the nose, and kelp and crustacea intertwine with slightly rustic but attractive black fruit, austere, compared to recent vintages, albeit typical of that period for Batailley. The palate is gentle, perhaps a little angular, though this bottle exhibited a touch more black fruit on the finish to counterbalance its obdurate tannins, a trope of the 1975 Left Banks. The aforementioned vertical will appear this year.

The 1976 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate from Clos du Val is the most interesting of all the wines. The estate was founded by John and Henrietta Goelet in the early Seventies when the couple challenged recently graduated winemaker Bernard Portet to create a Bordeaux-inspired estate in Napa. Clos du Val attained global recognition when its inaugural 1972 Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the wines poured blind by Steven Spurrier at the epochal The Judgement of Paris, so this bottle of 1976 was one of their earliest bottlings that, incidentally, came directly from Clos de Val’s apparently meager reserves. It is very elegant and perfumed on the nose, typical old school, classic Napa Cabernet in all its unfettered glory, beautifully defined with wilted rose petals and a light fish scale element. Supple, very pliant tannins define the palate. There remains ample freshness and poise, a fine silver thread of acidity and a clove-tinged, rounded, exquisitely balanced finish that would surpass practically every other Bordeaux from this vintage. Outstanding.

Koumoto is fantastic from start to finish. It is not too pretentious. The staff are friendly and attentive. If you want a masterclass in traditional Japanese cuisine based on fastidiously sourced ingredients, your tastebuds will be eternally grateful. Yes, it is difficult to find, though not impossible, so do as much research as possible beforehand to get your bearings.

I bid adieu to my former colleague. We’ve both come a long way since we first met many years ago. From the youngest member of the wine department, he’s now running the show, and my own career isn’t going too badly. Domo arigato Hiro San.