The Pursuit of Good Wine

In those days, it was common for Japanese wines to be made from American grape varieties or subsequent cross-breeds of them that were cultivated primarily for eating instead of fermenting. Our vineyard, on the other hand, aspired toward a more authentic wine-making process and embarked on the cultivation of European varietals like Merlot and Chardonnay, despite these being rather difficult to grow in Japan.

“Good wine comes from good grapes” is a phrase that all winemakers must bear in mind. Unlike other alcoholic beverages, wine is made exclusively from grapes. Amid the process of these grapes being transformed into wine through the activity of natural yeast, humans only play a minor role, and therefore the grapes’ quality takes center stage in determining the taste of the wine.

I believe that wine as a finished product must reflect the special characteristics of the grapes from which it’s made and the climate of its region. And since our founding, producing wines that evoke a sense of the Minamiuonuma environment has been our greatest ambition as a vineyard.

The Added Value Unique to Snow Country

The climate of Minamiuonuma City is largely influenced by its basin landscape and sees a considerable difference in temperature between day and night. Secondly, the vineyard’s location in an alluvial fan helps keep it well-irrigated and, as a result, good quality grapes with a high sugar content can be harvested.

On winery grounds there is also a yukimuro snow cellar set up where snow that piles up in winter is stored year-round. In our winemaking process the naturally cold air from this snow is used to regulate cool temperatures as the wines are being aged. This method of natural cooling with snow is surely a winemaking technique unique to Minamiuonuma. Additionally, in an effort to reduce the burden we place on the environment we conduct organic cultivation and soil preparation without relying on chemical fertilizers, and have found success with low-pesticide cultivation through covering our grapevines.

Today, we are able to produce a steady stream of wines which have received many awards in the Japan Wine Competition.

With the firm belief that “wine is born in the vineyard,” we will employ new, more sophisticated techniques in our future vineyard tilling and continue to produce wines that reflect the natural environment of Minamiuonuma.

Narrator: Director of Cultivation & Production Shigeharu Aoki