Nippon's Bottles

Domaine Atsushi Suzuki Tomo Rouge 2025Domaine Atsushi Suzuki is the estate of Atsushi Suzuki in the Nobori district of Yoichi, Hokkaido, founded in...

Eight hundred bottles, released only inside Hokkaido and drawn by lottery at the domaine's own stockist: a Kerner that, unusually for this house, d...

Domaine Yui calls A2 the earliest-ripening block on Farm A and the one that demands its strictest sorting every year; for 2024 the domaine also cut...

In 2025 the Sugiyamas picked their forty-year-old Portland vines a fortnight early, in a Hokkaido summer they called unprecedented; the finished pé...

Domaine Yui usually bottles its forty-year-old Portland vines alone; for this release the Sugiyamas blended in barrel-aged Pinot Noir from their A ...

Domaine Mont Rouge AK 2023Domaine Mont is the Yoichi winery of Atsuo Yamanaka, who trained for two years at Domaine Takahiko before founding the do...

Domaine Mont Kern AK 2021Domaine Mont is the Yoichi winery of Atsuo Yamanaka, who trained for two years at Domaine Takahiko before founding the dom...

Riesling was said never to ripen in Yoichi; Atsuo Yamanaka picks it while the acid is still high and lets a second wild-yeast fermentation in bottl...

Mongaku Valley Winery 2019 – 3 Bottle Set (Nara, Tochi, Haku)1. 楢 Nara 2019 – dry white from black grapes (blanc de noirs style): Pinotage 65%, Pin...

The kanji on this label means to understand, and Etienne de Montille's team chose it for 2021 after three vintages of learning Hokkaido from borrow...

de Montille & Hokkaido 學 Gaku (Etude) 2020 – 3 Bottle Set1. Kerner 2020 – white; Aki vineyard (average vine age 27 years); 45% stainless steel,...

Nora Ken Yamarone 2023Nora (Norakura) is the winery of Ken and Katsuko Sasaki, who both studied winemaking in Burgundy. Founded in 2012 in Hakodate...

Kondo Vineyard sums up 2020 in one word, bumper crop: 1,882 bottles, nearly double the farm's previous record for this wine. Tap-Kop is the Kondo f...

10R Winery Nokofuku Rose – TireMan Series (MV)10R Winery (pronounced "to-aru") is a custom-crush winery in Kurisawa, Iwamizawa, Hokkaido, working o...

Terre de Ciel 2023 – 5 Bottle Set1. Chardonnay 2023 – white; Chardonnay 95%, Savagnin 5%; fermented and aged in old barrels2. La Lune 2023 – white;...

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 harves...

Twenty-four days of picking, 19 September to 12 October 2022, for a Merlot whose Chardonnay neighbours were in the cellar within three. Ikeno's blo...

In 2024 the September nights in Sorachi turned cold again, the birds stayed in the forest, and Irenka picked far more Pinot Noir than it had expect...

Domaine Atsushi Suzuki farms 5.6 hectares on a gentle east-facing slope in Yoichi, Hokkaido — 60 to 80 metres up, on weathered gravel, sand and cla...

In 2021 Hokkaido had almost no rain from early July to early August, then September rain split the swollen berries, and Irenka threw away more than...

Terre de Ciel –La Lune 2023750ml | White (Dry) | Nagano, Japan  From the highlands of Komoro in Nagano Prefecture, Ciel Blanc 2022 is a striking ex...

Two weeks into the 2019 ferment, Georgian qvevri makers visited the Kondo cellar, and their advice cut the time on skins to three weeks, shorter th...

Ryosuke Kondo planned the 2020 as the final chapter of what he called his four-part Hokkaido qvevri trial, begun with the 2017 harvest. His release...