Breaking new ground

The event will be held at CEDAR THE CHOP HOUSE & BAR in Rem Roppongi on September 29, 2025.
Based on the concept of "The more you know about wine, the tastier it is," Because, offers wines that can be enjoyed casually and relaxedly. On this day, the owner, Jun Yoshida, led the winery in offering a variety of wines.

Founded in Milan, Italy in 1860, CAMPARI is one of the world's leading liquor manufacturers. Currently, the company operates over 50 brands, with its wholly owned subsidiary, CAMPARI JAPAN Co., Ltd., handling operations in Japan. On the day, CEO Satoshi Abe and Executive Officer Yosuke Wakabayashi attended the event. Brands bearing the flagship brands "CAMPARI" and "APEROL" were offered.

Food will be served buffet style, and at first glance it may look like a double pairing, but the essence of this event is the "collaboration." Special cocktails created by bartenders Ogawa Naoto and Shirai Tomoya, who serve as CAMPARI brand ambassadors, will be served using Because, wine and both CAMPARI and APEROL liqueurs.

Because there is sake there

As mentioned at the beginning, blends are a familiar presence in the world of Western spirits. However, this is only true at the product level, and it seems that this is not necessarily the case when it comes to cross-breeding alcoholic beverages.

It was Yoshida who pointed this out.
Through Because, they are promoting efforts to bring people closer to wine, and in the past they have even collaborated with Dassai on sake.
When you think about it, wine has its own story and terroir, and is "complete." It's not really expected that "foreign elements" will be introduced into it. From that perspective, it could be said that there is a similar barrier to blending as there is to sake. However, even when viewed from the industry as a whole, Because,'s approach is said to be groundbreaking.

Yoshida gives a greeting.

In response to this, Abe said in his opening remarks that CAMPARI was "really excited to be approached and wanted to give it a try."
As Ogawa and Shirai demonstrated on this day, they are working hard to develop new products using alcohol as a starting point, and perhaps because they have experienced the joy of the chemical changes that occur in the process, they were tolerant of the new product.
By the way, it seems that they recently collaborated with the shochu maker Iichiko, so it seems that their range of expertise is quite wide.

Executive Officer Wakabayashi (center) giving a speech, with President Abe listening attentively on the right.

If the wine cocktails served on this day were to be sold as "products" in a bar, their popularity among customers would have a direct impact on sales.
If this is the case, then in order to increase the number of success stories, the more opportunities there are to incorporate "new sake," the better.
Both Ogawa and Shirai shared stories about their work from their own perspectives, and it was striking to see how both of them looked back on the production process with a certain amount of enjoyment, even though they must have felt a certain amount of pressure.

Naoto Ogawa, Campari Group Brand Ambassador / CAMPARI Cocktail Competition Asia 2018 Japan Champion

Tomoya Shirai, Campari Group brand ambassador and French Syrup brand ambassador

Japanese-Western fusion

At Sake World, we are always working on blended sake from a Japanese perspective, but we had the impression that Western blended sake has already reached a certain level of perfection. Through this event, we realized that there is still a lot of room for improvement in the Western world.

Considering this, it wouldn't seem so strange if sake were also served at this event.
In recent years, sake has become more diverse in the ways it can be enjoyed, not just as a blend, but also as a highball, cocktail, or mixed with juice. As with wine, drinking it neat remains the standard, but the range of ways to enjoy it is certainly expanding.

Even if a few 1.8L bottles of sake were added to the lineup at this venue, I get the impression that there wouldn't be much negative reaction to it. This means that while it is a "Japanese-Western fusion," the Japanese and Western styles are no longer as independent as they once were, and apart from the manufacturing method, they are becoming more assimilated. The term "Japanese-Western fusion" originated at the end of the Edo period, but after the Meiji Restoration and Enlightenment that followed, in modern Japan, with a large influx of inbound tourists, "fusion" may be a more appropriate expression than "fusion."

Alcohol is often described as a "communication tool." On this day, many visitors were smiling and enjoying themselves. The same could be said for the people who provided the alcohol.

It was a night that made us realize that there are still many ways for alcohol to be expressed in order to create a place where many people can enjoy themselves.