A wooden shelf in the Umeshu Bar in Tanabe holds dozens of bottles of Japanese plum liqueur, umeshu. Wakayama Prefecture supplies more than 60 percent of Japan's ume harvest, around 40,000 tonnes a year, mostly the Nanko-ume variety. The Tanabe/Minabe region has made umeshu for roughly 400 years; in the early 17th century, feudal lord Naotsugu Ando exempted the plum orchards from tax. Umeshu tastes sweet and sour with fruity notes of stone fruit and almond; a plum often sits at the bottom of the bottle.