Domaine Atsushi Suzuki Higure no Shizuku to Akanegumo Pinot Noir 2024 750ml

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 clay over andesite bedrock. Atsushi Suzuki took the vineyard over from conventional growers and has moved it steadily toward organic farming: grass cover, no tillage, Bordeaux mixture as the main treatment, and the domaine's own wines made only from the parcels farmed without synthetic sprays. The cellar is a renovated early-Shōwa stone warehouse once used for apples; there is no pump and no destemmer, only a small basket press, barrels and resin tanks. Fermentation is with wild yeast, nothing is added but a minimal dose of sulfites at bottling, and the wines are never chaptalised or acidified. One of the quiet benchmarks of Yoichi's natural-wine generation, made in tiny quantities and hard to find even within Japan.

Higure no Shizuku to Akanegumo Pinot Noir — “drops of dusk and crimson clouds” — is the red sibling of the domaine's rosé of the same name, sharing its evening-sky label: Pinot Noir from the Yoichi parcels, wild-fermented, handled without pumps or destemmer, and bottled with only a trace of sulfites. Light in colour and weight, fragrant and pure, it is Suzuki's cool-climate Pinot at its most delicate. The 2024 is the current release.

Vintage: 2024
Cuvée: Higure no Shizuku to Akanegumo Pinot Noir (日暮れの雫と茜雲 Pinot Noir)
Producer: Domaine Atsushi Suzuki
Region: Yoichi, Hokkaido, Japan
Grape: Pinot Noir
ABV: 12.5%
Volume: 750ml