Tokachi Wine in eastern Hokkaido’s Ikeda Town started processing grapes for this year’s wine on September 25. Excellent summer weather yielded greater quantity and quality than average years in fermentation grapes from Ikeda Town and central Hokkaido’s Shiribeshi, and the processed volume is expected to be around 400 to 450 tons. Work will extend until the end of October.
The grapes prepared for fermentation on September 25 consisted of 12 tons of four grape varieties, including original red wine grape “Kiyomi”, Shiribeshi grown white wine grapes, and rosé wine grapes for Ikeda locals.Each variety of grape was loaded separately onto a conveyer belt. The grapes were removed from their clusters by machinery, and suboptimal grapes were removed by hand on a sorting platform. Afterwards, the red wine grapes were transferred to a fermentation tank and the white wine grapes were pressed and transferred to a tank. The Townsperson Rosé will be available for purchase next year and Kiyomi wine will be available in two to three years after maturing.