Domaine Mie Ikeno Merlot 2021 750ml

The last fruit off the hill: Mie Ikeno's 2021 Merlot was picked from 21 September to 7 October, after Typhoon No. 14 had tested the vines at harvest.

Domaine Mie Ikeno sits on a low hill south of Kobuchizawa in Yamanashi, on the skirts of the Yatsugatake range at 750 metres. She named the site Les pas du chat after the cat footprints she found there in autumn 2006. The vineyard covers 3.6 hectares, about three of them planted, on volcanic-ash soil mixed with sand and clay; the winery cites 2,400 sunshine hours a year and a wide day-night swing that keeps acidity. Clearing the abandoned farmland took three years from 2007, and 6,300 vines went in over 2007 to 2009, roughly 30 percent of them Merlot on the south-east and south-west slopes.

The winery's own blog gives a plain record of 2021. A late-April morning at 3°C brought frost worries just after bud-break, heavy rain fell in mid-August, and Typhoon No. 14 arrived the weekend after picking had begun in mid-September. Chardonnay came in on 23 September; Merlot, always the last variety to ripen on this hill, was cut from 21 September through 7 October, the blog noting "Merlot harvest in progress" under evening sun on the 6th and "harvest in its final stage" the next day. The release note, quoted by Hoshino Resorts at the June 2023 launch, lists fermentation in stainless steel, 15 to 18 months of ageing and 12 percent alcohol; the US importer's sheet adds that the ageing is in French oak.

Ikeno, a Montpellier-trained oenologist who worked in Burgundy and the south of France, built the winery in autumn 2011 with one floor above ground and two below, so that fruit pressed at the top drops to tank and then to barrel without a pump, a system she describes as Japan's first gravity-flow cellar. Her stated aim is a wine that packs the soil, wind, water and sun of Yatsugatake into the bottle as they are.

In the glass

The winery's note for the 2021 Merlot, as quoted by Hoshino Resorts, opens with blueberry and cassis, followed by herbs and a citrus-like acidity that stretches out; black pepper and a smoky nuance come through on the retro-nasal, and the tannin is taut and fine-grained with a marked astringency. The wine is dry at 12 percent alcohol.

When to open

The winery gives a drinking window of five to ten years and a serving temperature of 15 to 17°C. Fine tannin at 12 percent suits a light chill, not decanting.

At the table

At Risonare Yatsugatake the 2021 is poured at OTTO SETTE, the Italian dining room. Our suggestion: herb-roasted lamb, or pasta with a slow meat ragù.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from a local distributor in Japan.

Sources: Domaine Mie Ikeno (website, blog, label); Hoshino Resorts Risonare Yatsugatake release (quoting the winery); nihonwine.jp; Skurnik Wines (US importer)