Written by Tadashi Agi and drawn by Shu Okimoto, The Drops of God began in Morning on 18 November 2004 and ended on 12 June 2014 at chapter 439, collected in 44 volumes. A celebrated wine critic dies leaving a will in which twelve wines, which he calls the apostles, and one final bottle named the drops of god, are described only in poetic language. Whoever identifies them inherits the estate.
His son Shizuku Kanzaki had rejected all of it and taken a job at a beer company, and now has to compete with Issei Tomine, a young critic his father adopted. Identifying each bottle means working through region, grape, vintage and producer, so the series doubles as a story and an introduction to the subject. Its most distinctive device is how it draws taste: the impression of a single mouthful is converted wholesale into a landscape or a piece of music and spread across a page.
Real wines appear under their own names, and the series is often credited with moving demand for the bottles it mentioned. Complete at 44 volumes, with a television adaptation.
