Domaine Yui T2 Pétillant Blanc Portland 2025 750ml

In 2025 the Sugiyamas picked their forty-year-old Portland vines a fortnight early, in a Hokkaido summer they called unprecedented; the finished pétillant sits at 8.0% alcohol.

Aya and Tetsuya Sugiyama met at Hokkaido University, settled in Yoichi in 2017 and, after two vintages made under contract, opened their own cellar with a licence in 2020. The prefecture's winery guide lists 5 hectares across two farms, A and T, with Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Campbell Early, Delaware and Portland each kept to its own block. The town's guide adds that the couple now export to Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Hong Kong and Singapore, with the UK and France to follow in 2026.

T2 is block 2 of Farm T in the Kurokawa district, a low pergola of table grapes taken over from the previous grower. Kanoya Saketen puts the farm at 2.7 hectares of Delaware, Campbell Early, Niagara and Portland, farmed without pesticides with yields held down to raise sugar; the domaine's release note says these labrusca vines are more than 40 years old. The 2025 season was the hottest the domaine has recorded: by early August its degree days, rainfall and sunshine hours had all passed previous highs. Harvest, which normally waits until after the La Fête festival in September, began on 30 August, with further picking days on 31 August, 6 and 13 September. Harada Shoten reproduces the domaine's sheet: Portland pressed gently, fermented on wild yeast and a second time in bottle on dried yeast, 8.0% alcohol, about 3,000 bottles. Yamajin notes that this same 2025 Portland became the base of the domaine's MV rosé.

The Sugiyamas do not oversell the grape. Labrusca, they wrote at release, is often called juice-like, yet made sparkling and kept low in alcohol it becomes a bottle for a hot summer, to drink from midday or in place of beer. The table-grape pétillants are filled on a four-spout bottling machine and crown-capped, every bottle by hand, as the domaine's June 2025 bottling video shows.

In the glass

The domaine's own note, as printed by Harada Shoten, promises lively acidity and a spread of citrus aromas in a brisk sparkling wine. Kanoya Saketen, a stockist, calls the 2025 an adult's lemon squash with a ginger-like note. Pale straw in clear glass under a silver crown cap, with the lees left in the bottle.

When to open

The domaine, through Harada Shoten, asks that the bottle stand upright so the sediment settles quietly, then that it be served well chilled. It was made for the summer after harvest; holding it a year or two is our suggestion, not theirs.

At the table

Kanoya Saketen suggests gyoza and other Chinese dishes, or spiced South-East Asian food; the domaine itself offers it in place of beer.

Quick facts

Provenance

Sourced from a local distributor in Japan.

Sources: Domaine Yui (Instagram, label); Harada Shoten; Kanoya Saketen; Yamajin; Cave de Relax; Hokkaido Prefecture winery guide; Yoichi town winery guide