Domaine Atsushi Suzuki Tomo Rouge 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.

Tomo Rouge is the domaine's signature red: 100% Zweigelt from its own vineyard, picked late and fully ripe, macerated for around thirty days, then pressed and rested twelve months in old barrels. Black fruit and herbal nuance, with real substance behind a gentle, elegant frame — the wine that showed what Zweigelt can be in Yoichi's hands. Sulfites only at bottling.

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