Bonne dégustation
Discover Japan’s seasonal treasures and regional delicacies perfectly paired with Bollinger’s eclectic range of unique cuvées and vintages.
Selection #006Bollinger × Kōbako Crab
Owner-Chef / Takao Fujiyama
A Surprising Marriage
Revealing the Other's Hidden Potential
In Ginza today, Fujiyama is widely known as a restaurant difficult to secure a reservation, even months in advance. In winter, it becomes a prime venue for gourmets seeking exceptional crab. Owner-chef Takao Fujiyama is a legendary figure who rose to the position of executive chef at a long-established restaurant in Kyoto at a remarkably young age. In 2019, he finally opened his own restaurant, Fujiyama, in Ginza. The pairing he recommends with Bollinger La Grande Année Rosé 2015 is kōbako crab, the small female snow crab prized for its delicacy. They are one of winter’s great pleasures that gourmets of historical capitals such as Kyoto and Kanazawa eagerly await each year for the limited fishing season of only November and December.
Fujiyama is renowned for its uncompromising approach to ingredients. Chef Fujiyama’s style is to personally visits production areas, building trust with producers one by one. Because the ingredients are gathered with such respect for the producers’ intentions, he wants guests to experience them fully. That philosophy is clearly expressed in the pairing with La Grande Année Rosé. The crab, meticulously prepared and beautifully arranged back into its shell, resembles a precious jewel nestled in an incense box. Each element—the inner roe, outer roe, and leg meat—offers its own distinct expression. When paired with Bollinger, the rosé Champagne reveals different facets depending on which part of the crab is tasted. La Grande Année Rosé 2015 is a blend of 11 crus, predominantly 62% of Pinot Noir from Verzenay, Aÿ and Mareuil-sur-Aÿ and 38% of Chardonnay from Chouilly and Avize. The blend includes 5% red wine from La Côte aux Enfants parcel. Paired with the delicate, silk-like texture of the leg meat, the wine’s beautifully refined Chardonnay acidity comes to the forefront. When enjoyed with the inner roe and it’s rich and creamy, yet chestnut-like texture, the generous fruit notes of Pinot Noir shine.
Owner-chefTakao Fujiyama Born in 1973 in Shimogamo, Kyoto, Takao Fujiyama entered the culinary world at 18, training in kappo cuisine. At 24, he joined a long-established Kyoto restaurant and later became executive chef at a young age. After becoming independent in 2018, he spent a year traveling across Japan seeking out producers. In March 2019, he opened Ginza Fujiyama.
Last but not least, the softly matured tannins of Pinot Noir tenderly wrap around the gently popping umami of the outer roe. Each sequence of paring, leg meat with inner roe, inner roe with outer roe, and outer roe with leg meat, evokes a different emotion and experience. Kōbako crab and rosé Champagne unfold their hidden potentials in ever-changing ways, complementing, enveloping, and elevating one another. This orchestration could only come from someone who understands ingredients as profoundly as Chef Fujiyama. Many fans travel from Kyoto just to fall under this spell. They are not drawn merely to “Kyoto cuisine,” but to “Kyoto cuisine interpreted by Chef Fujiyama.”
A Pairing of Jewels
Resonance of Unwavering Core Principles
Born and trained in Kyoto, and having led one of its most renowned establishments there, Chef Fujiyama chose Ginza for a reason.
“Great ingredients exist all across Japan. I travel the country to find them, build trust with their producers and handlers, and have them sent to me. In doing so, I realized that my field didn’t have to be Kyoto. That’s why I chose Tokyo as a new challenge.” Because his Kyoto-bred, aesthetic core never wavers, his creations stay true to genuine Kyoto cuisine wherever they exist, whether in a city in Japan or even abroad. Today, guests come to Fujiyama from across Japan and around the world, including many from Kyoto itself, a testament to the success of his vision.
In 1941, Elisabeth Law de Lauriston-Boubers, known as Madame Bollinger succeeded her husband Jacques Bollinger, and guided Maison Bollinger through wartime and postwar turmoil, leading it to great growth. Madame Bollinger agreed to producing a rosé under one condition, it had to be extraordinary, and that is how La Grande Année Rosé was born. Its defining feature is the unique blend of red wine that comes from a steep hill on the outskirts of Aÿ, aged in small oak barrels, in the Burgundian style. Produced only when the maturation of the grapes is considered exceptional, this wine embodies the unwavering core philosophy that “Pinot Noir is Bollinger’s signature.” The marriage of Bollinger La Grande Année Rosé 2015 and Fujiyama’s kōbako crab evokes a sense of the vast seas where the crab was nurtured, the rolling hills of Champagne, and the warm glow of winter fires in Kyoto.
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Bonne dégustationBollinger × Kōbako Crab
Owner-Chef / Takao Fujiyama
Champagne Bollinger obtains
B Corp certification.
Maison Bollinger obtained B Corp certification, an international certification which represents high standards in terms of social, societal, and environmental performance and it allows us to join a community of businesses who are committed to the ambitious development of these values., Maison Bollinger maintains its ongoing commitment to People, to the Land, and to its Roots as well as our continued efforts towards further progress.