Domaine Takahiko Nana Tsu Mori Pinot Noir 2024 750ml

Takahiko Soga asks that this bottle stay closed until April 2027, and calls 2024 the vintage that needs age more than any he has made.

Nana-Tsu-Mori, “seven forests”, was once an orchard of seven kinds of fruit tree. Today it is Soga’s own 6.7 hectares of Pinot Noir, farmed organically on a hill about 60 metres up in the Nobori district of Yoichi, Hokkaido: volcanic clay over andesite, under more than a metre of snow each winter. A warm current offshore makes Yoichi mild and dry by Hokkaido standards, and the surrounding capes and hills shelter the vines.

Soga founded the domaine in 2010 after ten years as farm manager at Coco Farm & Winery. He grows 13 selections of Pinot Noir and says what he is after is closer to a fine dashi than a big red: pale, but deep and long. The wines of Pierre Overnoy in the Jura set him on that path. It is a family-run domaine with a small cellar and no shop, and it does not sell direct. Only wine from Soga’s own vines carries the name Domaine Takahiko on the label, as this one does.

By the domaine’s records, the 2024 heat summation (1,468) was second only to 2023, with relatively little rain from véraison to harvest. That year Soga also put air-conditioning into the fermenting room and built an underground barrel cellar. The wine fermented as whole clusters with wild yeast, stayed on its skins for about 45 days, and spent 12 months in barrel, 17% of it new. No sulphur goes in until bottling. 12,500 bottles were made.

In the glass

The domaine’s note: cumin, cinnamon and cardamom over black fruit, then mushroom, matsutake, truffle and pine resin, with violet and black tea; a long, savoury finish.

When to open

Not before April 2027, while it settles after bottling; ideally after four years or more, the domaine says.

At the table

Our suggestion: duck, or anything with wild mushrooms.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from a local distributor in Japan.

Sources: Domaine Takahiko (takahiko.co.jp: estate page and 2024 wine list).