insights from frontier Japan

The Sasaki couple owns a winery in Hakodate, and it has been ten years since they launched a farm field in the neighboring city of Hokuto. Their decision to not use filtration or antioxidants gives their wine a pure, natural flavor. They ship about 13,000 bottles per year, and stock shelves at about 50 liquor stores nationwide. The wine sells out so quickly, they are often called, "The Ghost Wine".

Tasting of Hokkaido wine and tea leaves has taken place at a maintenance tunnel at Hoheikyo Dam (Minami-ku, Sapporo), where they are currently being stored as part of an experiment. Approximately 20 representatives from wineries and a specialty Japanese Tea store in Sapporo, which are taking part in the experiment, checked the mellowness and aroma attained during the maturing process.

To promote the June 9 "Rosé on the Rocks Day", the Ikeda Town Tourist Association in Eastern Hokkaido's Tokachi region is sponsoring a campaign from June 9 to 30 gifting Townsperson Rosé Wine to 15 people.

Located in the city of Nayoro, ‘Shinga’ is known as Japan’s northernmost winery. “If there were no varieties that contained the Crimson Glory pedigree, we couldn’t have produced red wine here,” confides CEO Takebe Yuji (48)

Domaine Takahiko (Yoichi) has been selected for the 4th consecutive year as a “5-Star winery”, the highest accolade of the ‘Japan Winery Award (sic) 2021’, which rates wineries and makers of high-quality wine throughout the whole of Japan. What’s more, the same region of Shiribeshi in central Hokkaido boasts three wineries that received a 4-star rating, ten that received a 3-star rating and two more that received the next best ‘connoisseurs’ award, increasing the presence of Shiribeshi’s wineries among Japan’s wine industry.

In early April, as the last remaining snow disappears, in a hillside vineyard overlooking Hakodate, maintenance was being carried out on the young Pinot noir variety of vines used to make red wine.

　Goats have been let loose to graze in the grounds of the Domaine Raison Winery by National Highway Route 237 in the town of Nakafurano in central Hokkaido, where the sight of the cute animals eating grass is warming the hearts of visitors.

Wine-grape vines grown in an experiment in the town of Nakatombetsu in the Soya region of northern Hokkaido bore their first fruits last autumn. The yield comprised just 20 bunches, but is seen as the first step towards realizing the aim of creating “northern Hokkaido brewing grapes”.

Export certification organization National Research Institute of Brewing (Higashihiroshima City, Hiroshima Prefecture) announced on November 19 that the original winemaking grape "Yamasachi" has been registered as a grape variety by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV, Paris). The grape variety was developed by eastern Hokkaido's Ikeda-cho Grape and Wine Research Institute.