Domaine Takahiko Yoichi Nobori 2018 750ml

The Aihara vineyard gave Takahiko Soga its smallest crop on record in 2018, and this Passetoutgrain, 70 percent Pinot Noir, ran to just 1,000 bottles.

Soga's release note explains the arithmetic. Hokkaido normally has no rainy season, but in 2018 July brought weeks of sunless rain over flowering; on his own Nana-Tsu-Mori plot in the same Nobori district that caused severe coulure and cut the crop to nearly half of normal. The loose, millerandage bunches that followed ripened berry by berry under fine late-season weather with almost no rot, giving dense aroma and flavour. At the Aihara vineyard the harvest was the smallest he had ever received, and he calls the result very concentrated. The blend is 70 percent Pinot Noir to 30 percent Zweigelt, fermented whole cluster with wild yeast and aged twelve months in used barrels. Because the fruit was healthy and he saw no risk of the mousy taint that bought grapes can bring, he added no sulphur.

Yoichi Nobori is Soga's name for wine he vinifies from grapes grown only in the Nobori district of Yoichi, Hokkaido, bought from a grower he respects; such bottles carry 'Takahiko Soga' alone on the label and never 'Domaine Takahiko'. The Passetoutgrain takes its model from Burgundy, with Zweigelt, the red grape he calls representative of Yoichi, standing in for Gamay on account of its firm frame and showy, generous fruit. The grapes come from the Aihara vineyard, known locally as Miki no Hotori, farmed under lutte raisonnée, and the vineyard name is printed on the label.

Soga, second son of the Obuse Winery family in Nagano, set up the domaine in 2010 after a decade as farm manager at Coco Farm & Winery. The crest above the wine name is his family mon, the five-three paulownia, which he redrew with Pinot Noir leaves.

In the glass

Soga's note describes black cherry from the Zweigelt set against strawberry, mushroom, mint and clove from the Pinot Noir, and for 2018, with Pinot Noir at 70 percent, a fine, layered scent inside comfortable fruit. His Nana-Tsu-Mori note for the same harvest records acidity slightly above normal and firm tannin for the district's Pinot Noir. Wineshop Brücke in Kanazawa, which received it in January 2021, wrote that the 2018 would rest in its cellar for a while.

When to open

Soga asked buyers not to open the 2018 before December 2020 and called three or more years of age the ideal, adding that older Yoichi Nobori Passetoutgrain he has drunk had evolved into something far better. Our suggestion: serve around 15 °C without decanting.

At the table

Our suggestion: roast chicken, grilled mushrooms or seared duck breast, dishes that meet the Pinot Noir umami rather than compete with the Zweigelt fruit.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from a local distributor in Japan.

Sources: Domaine Takahiko (producer wine list, 2020 archive; label); Isego (Tokyo retailer); winy.tokyo / Wineshop Brücke; aikikaku blog