The Devil in the Grape
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Introducing SOS Wine, your friendly one stop members only wine concierge service. Whether it’s recommending that special bottle of wine for a loved one’s anniversary, a case or two of wine for home drinking or party entertaining, BYOB restaurant options, wine storage, wine education, special wine promotions across Tokyo - anything wine related we’re here to help.

At the heart of the service is the wine buying concierge service. We’re sick of overpriced wine in Japan and on a mission to bring that to an end. The main reason for the usurious pricing is simple: there are vast margins in the business between importer and retailer. The underlying reasons for that are manifold and too complex to go into here but in short it’s a bad thing. At least for the end consumer. So we’ll use our vast network of suppliers to source wine for you at wholesale rates - you then pay us a modest annual flat rate concierge membership fee. Use the service as many times as you want. Based on average wine prices you’ll save the annual membership fee after just one order. And while you get to enjoy your favorite wines at heavily discounted rates you get all the other services thrown in for free.

We is Richard Dawson, accountant-turned wine lecturer and owner of acclaimed Tokyo wine bar Parabola, and Charles Lawrence, all round wine aficionado par excellence who has worked at some of Japan’s top wine importers, run a popular wine bar in Hakuba and who, after a stint making iconoclastic wine in the cool climate Robe region in South Australia, is now planting a vineyard in Nagano-ken with a view to making his own label wines here.

Buying wine can often be a daunting task given the sheer range and diversity on offer these days.
So we've done all the hard work for you and whittled it all down to a small and eminently manageable selection of what we believe to be some of the best value wines available in Tokyo. We aim to cover all the major wine regions and styles as well as some off the beaten track options - but rather than bamboozling you with myriad options per category we just offer you a pithy selection of our personal favourites.

Our selection criteria is simple: imagine you're at a wine bar and order a glass of wine. You take a sip and rate the wine: 0 = no thank you; 1 = hhmm that's quite nice, I'll have a glass; 2 = yes! bring me the bottle. All our wines are rated 2. 

Wine list attached below.

Orders / inquiries to richard@thedevilinthegrape.com.

Monthly mixed case programme
You will be spoiled for choice with the extensive selection on our list so why not make life easy for yourself and subscribe to our monthly wine programme. Every month we select for you a mixed case of 6/12 bottles based on the wines that we are finding to be the best value on the market. All wines come with tasting notes to enlighten your drinking experience. All wines come with our satisfaction guarantee. 

We have three levels.

AOC: 15,000 / 6 bottles
Premier Cru: 30,000 / 6 bottles
Grand cru: 50,000 / 6 bottles

Please get in touch to discuss preferences.

Orders and inquiries to richard@thedevilinthegrape.com. 
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