How we verify that a shop carries a wine

The rule for listing a shop

The site displays “you can buy it here” only when a relationship between a producer and a shop can be verified with a source. A name appearing in search results, a social-media mention, or geographic proximity is not enough. We record the supporting information one relationship at a time: the producer’s retailer list, the shop’s own official site, or a third-party directory.

What we record is an edge between a shop and a producer. If one shop is connected to several producers, each relationship is kept separately. The number of shops and the number of shop–producer relationships are therefore different. We are checking which producer a shop can be shown to carry, not whether it makes a broad claim about Japanese wine in general.

The tiers mean who is saying it

The tiers describe the strength of the evidence according to who publishes the relationship. Tier one means the producer publishes the shop as one of its retailers. Tier two means the shop publishes the relationship on its own site. Tier three means the shop appears in a third-party directory. A producer’s own current retailer list is the strongest evidence; a third-party directory is treated as a lead that still needs context.

A single shop can have a tier-one edge with producer A, a tier-two edge with producer B, and a tier-three edge with another producer. “Shops with that tier” therefore includes overlap between tiers and cannot be added to derive the total number of shops. A tier is not a grade for the shop; it is the strength of the source for a particular relationship.

Availability is not stock

Our reading: A statement that a shop carries a wine has different weight depending on who makes the statement. Flattening every relationship into “available” would erase whether the source is the producer’s official notice, the shop’s own claim, or a third-party directory. That is why we preserve the tier and the original source.

Even a strong tier describes a relationship supported at the time it was checked; it does not guarantee stock on the day you visit. Seasonal products, delivery timing, sell-outs, and shop changes can alter the situation. Contact the shop directly to confirm stock and opening conditions before going to buy.