Domaine Atsushi Suzuki Pinot Noir 2022 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.

Pinot Noir is the domaine's most Burgundian bottling — Suzuki names the delicate, elegant wines of Burgundy among his touchstones, and this is where that shows. Wild-fermented, gently handled without pumps, and bottled with only a trace of sulfites, the 2022 is pale, fragrant and pure: red fruit and forest floor with the fine acidity of a cool Hokkaido season. Made in very small quantity.

Vintage: 2022
Cuvée: Pinot Noir
Producer: Domaine Atsushi Suzuki
Region: Yoichi, Hokkaido, Japan
Grape: Pinot Noir
ABV: 12.5%
Volume: 750ml