YAMAGATA -- A Japan agricultural cooperative in Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture has provided about 2,000 damaged bottles of wine to footbathing spots as they could not be shipped after heavy rainfall at the end of July.
A footbath using Gassan Wine was opened at Chitto Mosche footbath cafe at Atsumi Onsen hot spring resort in the city on Tuesday.
The heavy rains caused muddy water from a nearby stream to flow into the storehouse of JA Shonai Tagawa's winery, Mt. Gassan Wine and Wild Vine Research Institute, according to the company. About 10,000 bottles of the about 30,000 in storage were no longer in condition to be shipped.
Thus, the cooperative has decided to offer about 2,000 bottles from the amount to be discarded to hot spring resort areas to be used in footbathing for tourists to enjoy, it said.
JA's head Masashi Ota and the owner of a cafe poured red wine into a foot bath placed at the terrace of the cafe on the opening day of the event.
"I feel utterly miserable as we've suffered so much damage," Ota said. "But I hope that people will enjoy the footbath, which will help to increase brand recognition of Gassan wine."
The footbath is free and it is available from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until about the end of this month.
According to the city, a wine footbath is available at the Yunohama Onsen hot spring resort in the city as well. The city also plans to use the red wine for dyeing.
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