Domaine Takahiko Yoichi Nobori Kerner 2022 750ml

Soga calls it a revival: the crown-capped Kerner he first released in 2010, remade in 2022 with the grower's own son and never offered for general sale.

The label reads Takahiko Soga, not Domaine Takahiko Soga, and the omission is deliberate. On his website Soga defines the Yoichi Nobori line as wines made only from grapes grown in the Nobori district of Yoichi, Hokkaido, bought from vignerons he respects rather than picked in his own organically farmed Nana-Tsu-Mori Pinot Noir vineyard. The crest above the name is his own reworking of the family's five-three paulownia into a five-three grape with a Pinot leaf. In Japanese the cuvée is called Mizuki no Kerner, Mizuki's Kerner.

Mizuki is Mizuki Nakai, fifth generation at Nakai Kanko Nouen, 1383 Nobori-cho, a farm that reached its hundredth year in 2023 and has trellis-grown vinifera for roughly forty years. The Yoichi town vineyard register lists Kerner first among its varieties on 5.2 hectares, with fruit supplied to six wineries. Nakai was a trainee at Domaine Takahiko when this wine was made, and he and Soga vinified Kerner from his family's rows together; Soga had once been a trainee on the Nakai farm himself. On 28 October 2022 Soga posted that the wine revives the crown-capped Nakai Blanc Kerner he first released in 2010, this time under cork, and asked followers to back Yoichi's hometown-tax programme.

It was released solely through the Yoichi Town Thanksgiving Festival of 3 to 10 November 2022, shipped the following spring, with a further allocation in 2023. Nakai founded Domaine Mizuki Nakai on 21 September 2023, the first grower-owned winery in Yoichi; Soga wrote that the family with the longest track record of vine-growing in Japan had finally built a winery, and that he had learned much of his farming from Mizuki's father and grandfather.

In the glass

Soga has published no tasting note for this cuvée. A Nagano drinker's blog that opened a bottle on 28 June 2024 recorded a light amber colour with fine bubbles, aromas of cider, honey, apple and pear, mushroom and dashi on the second day, and a dry palate with soft gas and a bitter finish; it also transcribed the back label, which lists grapes from the Nobori district of Yoichi, added sulfites and 10% alcohol. That reading points to a dry, low-alcohol Kerner with a touch of gas.

When to open

No drinking window has been published. Our suggestion: it is ready now; serve cool at 10 to 12 °C, open it an hour ahead so any gas can settle, and drink within the next few years.

At the table

Our suggestion: the Yoichi guide's Misa Kunii calls Soga's wines dashi-like, so pair it with dashi-based dishes, steamed white fish or lightly pickled vegetables.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from a local distributor in Japan.

Sources: Domaine Takahiko (website, label, Facebook); Yoichi Town furusato nozei guide; Yoichi Town wine-tourism register; Discover Japan; ヒマだしワインのむ (blog); namappi (blog)