Yutaka Kanzaki, a famed wine expert, dies, leaving a will and a legacy of wine knowledge. His estranged natural son, Shizuku, who has never drunk wine, and his adopted son, Issei Tomine, an exacting wine critic in his own right, must compete by identifying the “12 Apostles” and “The Drops of God” to inherit Kanzaki's estate.

The Drops of God has story by Tadashi Agi and art by Shū Okimoto. English translation is done by Kate Robinson. Published by Vertical Comics (November 18, 2025).

Erica Friedman
Rating:

This manga is largely why and how I drink wine today. I was beginning to drink wine when I encountered The Drops of God in the bargain section of Book-Off. Someone I knew was taking expensive tasting classes, while I was teaching myself about wine, one US$4 volume at a time. The Drops of God was fun, fanciful, with good guys and bad guys and sad sacks who needed help pairing wine perfectly, and every volume I'd go over their house and be like “Oh, a VV! You can really taste the minerals in the terroir,” while they showed off their expensive collection. I felt like I was Shizuku, uncouthly stomping through a refined world of snobbery and classism, but having a blast drinking a bunch of wine.

The point of this manga was never to encourage personal investment in wine, but to justify Asahi's investment in the wine industry. The underlying story here is not “look at this famous wine you should buy and stick in your cellar so it appreciates,” the story is “here is a really delicious wine and here is the best way to appreciate it.”

Because this is a shounen food battle manga, Shizuku and Isseigo go to absurd lengths to obtain, identify, and drink wine—including climbing the Matterhorn and digging in a desert— and, yes, their visions of people and places as they have yet another foodgasm over a specific vintage, are absolutely ridiculous. However, the key here is to learn about wine and try various wines until you find one that suits your taste. And to do that, we get to the real fun part of every arc. Let's be honest, whatever Yutaka Kanzaki chose as his Apostles and The Drops of God are out of our range and interest. I'm not getting to try them, so who really cares? I do care what white wine works best with Korean food. It is because of this series that I found that a dry Gewurztraminer was perfect with Indian food, while Shizuku saves a family restaurant from ruin…with wine!

So if you don't care about wine, read this for the battles. If the battles are too silly, read this for the adventure, the sex, the glamour of the world of wine, but do read it, preferably with a nice Côte du Provence Rose.

Bolts
Rating:

I don't like wine. In fact, I don't really like alcohol that much in general, so I was curious if a drama series revolving around wine tasting would be able to grab my attention. To my surprise, it actually did in a heightened way that I found mostly enjoyable. The series is about a rather tragic young man who is strong-armed into going on a wine-tasting journey. The book does a solid job of properly establishing how layered and intricate winetasting is. It also does a good job of blending the legitimate technical elements and emotional understanding of how wine flavors change under different circumstances. Throw in some emotional beats regarding our main character and their relationship with their father, and you have a solid foundation.

The presentation feels a bit bland outside the visual metaphors, which evoke specific feelings when tasting the wine. Most of it's pretty simple, but I do appreciate a strong visual indicator of how the characters feel as they articulate their thoughts about the wine tasting. It does make up for the fact that the presentation itself holds the book back from being a bit more accessible to general audiences. There are a lot of references to things like wine color and texture that don't really translate well to a black-and-white manga format. None of this is helped by the fact that the story is so dense with dialogue and exposition.

We're front-loaded with how wine tastes, the history of wine-making, the main character's backstory, and very involved explanations of how different pouring methods can bring out specific flavors, etc. I want to commend the book for its attention to detail. I don't know anything about wine tasting, and I did feel like I walked away from this book learning something. However, the topic's density is a bit too much, and I did feel there were solid chunks of the book where I didn't know what the characters were talking about anymore. On the one hand, that could mean this book isn't for me, as I could recommend it to anybody with at least a passive interest in wine tasting. However, if you're someone with no interest whatsoever, I don't think this is the kind of story that will completely win you over unless you're really willing to let all those words wash over you.