Tadashi Agi has brought a story form to the world which doesn't sound like it should work.
A tale of the jaded son of a deceased wine critic going on a quest to find the greatest wines in the world, laid out in classic cartoon style.
As it's turned out, Kami no Shizuki ('The Drops of God') is a huge success, with 6 million readers in Japan and 3 million more throughout Taiwan, Korea and Hong Kong.
Suitably enough, the publishers Editions Glenat are actually French.
It was over a bottle of 1985 Echezeaux, Domaine de la Romanée Conti that the Drops of God was conceived.
To any wine lover 'DRC' wines are legendary.
Certainly the "magnificent floral aromas" enchanted the minds of the writers.
Since then they have used wine-tasting to inspire more images and stories. "Certain wines are not as good but give more images." Shin Kibayashi explained.
The premise of the story is that the wine critic dies leaving a will referring to 12 wines he considers to be the equivalent to Jesus Christ's Disciples, and a 13th the Drops of God.
Whoever finds all of them will inherit his collection.
The hero doesn't know much about wine, so readers learn alongside him as he pursues the divine tipples.
Six 'disciples' has been discovered so far.
Sometimes legendary wine-makers have been featured in the fantasy.
Jean-Michel Cazes was startled to find his hotel and 1983 Chateau Lynch Bages in the story.
Lesser known wines which are featured promptly sell out.
The Drops of God is expected to continue for three more years, for a complete set of 40 volumes, and has now seen the authors inducted into the Commanderie du Bontemps, an exclusive French wine brotherhood.
So what does all this have to do with collecting wine with a view to building a valuable asset?
Put simply...
The stories are doing a tremendous job of introducing parts of Asia to wine, causing the field of wine-collecting to go from strength to strength.
We've recently reported on the record breaking Petrus and the heightened interest in rare wines in the Asia region.
Now we're recommending you purchase fine wine before the sheer wieght of numbers in the Far East has a further impact on the market.
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